Broken, Alone, Broken
by Xzeihoranth
Summary: Blake and Yang entered a relationship prior to the Breach. After the Fall, Blake still leaves. With the help of CFVY, Yang attempts to recover from everything that's happened to her. Each of the girls are damaged in their own way and trying to hide it, but there's no hiding from what's to come.
1. Chapter 1

Yang stares at the wall. Ever since she woke up she seems to have trouble looking at people. Ruby misses her sister's eyes. She misses seeing life in them instead of this horrible vacant stare that reminds her of Penny if she lets it. "Yang?" she whispers. Yang barely glances in her direction. "I've gotta go." Now Yang does look at her, something approaching both terror and sorrow in her face. Still worse is the look of resignation, as if she knew this day would come. "I need to do something. I..." Ruby chokes back a sob. "I need to find out about my eyes, I need to fight _back,_ I need- I need-" She buries her face in her sister's shoulder and lets the tears flow.

Yang wishes she remembered how to cry. She thinks this would be a good time to cry. As good a time as any. She puts her arm around her sister, and for a moment, just a moment, she envies her for having two of them.

Ruby lifts her head suddenly. "Yang!" she says, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "You're crying!"

Out of habit Yang tries to raise her right arm to her face. She stops still when she remembers, and Ruby has to brush away a tear with her thumb. "See?" Ruby says, holding said thumb up for Yang to inspect.

Yang looks at what might be a drop of liquid and looks back at Ruby, her expression faintly puzzled. "That's good!" Ruby says. "You're getting better!" She throws her arms around Yang and hugs her fiercely. Yang has to admit it feels nice. "I'm so proud of you." Ruby whispers.

 _Why?_ Yang thinks blankly.

The hug ends all too soon for Yang's liking. Ruby stands up. "I better get going." she says. "Team JNPR's waiting. Well, what's left of it." A sound comes unbidden to her ears, of Pyrrha Nikos hiccuping quietly as she struggles for breath, and she shakes her head in a sudden panic. "We'll be waiting for you in Haven." she says and hurries out the door.

Yang reaches out. "Wait." she says feebly. "Please. Don't go." But Ruby is already gone.

She drags herself out of bed and over to the window and throws it open. If she cranes her neck she can see four people going up the path through the trees. "Ruby..." she croaks.

Snow crunches under someone's feet. "Yang?" Sun asks. "What are you doing out of bed? Is everything okay?"

She can't bring herself to answer. He comes around to stand beneath her, following her line of sight with his eyes. "Wait, where's Ruby going? Hold on, I'm gonna go get her."

He stops when she mumbles "Let her go" as firmly as she can. Before he has a chance to say anything else, she leans back in and closes the window before getting back into bed.

Yang stares at the wall.


	2. Chapter 2

**Warnings for a dream sequence that might resemble gaslighting.**

* * *

Weiss looks at the clock. Five more hours. She groans. "I should get up." she murmurs to the ceiling. "I should get started early. Father would like that. Father...would..."

 _"Weiss?" She turned. "Is everything all right?"_

 _"Of course it is." she smiled. "Why wouldn't it be? Everyone's having a great time."_

 _"Everyone except you." The person took her by the hand. "Come on."_

 _"Pyrrha?" And it was. Pyrrha, stunning in her dress, even more stunning than in her armor, held her by the hand and dragged her onto the ballroom floor. "What's going on?"_

 _"You've only had one dance." Pyrrha chided her. "That's not enough for an event like this." She pulled Weiss close and began to move._

 _Weiss was sweating. "So have you." she said, and immediately regretted it._ She'll know I was staring...

 _"I'd say that makes us even then!" Pyrrha laughed as she dipped Weiss down low._

 _"Have you been practicing?" was the only thing Weiss could think of to say._

 _"Maybe I have." Pyrrha said slyly. The music changed to something slow and tender, and Weiss could feel Pyrrha's heart beating next to hers. "This is lovely, isn't it?" Pyrrha asked. Weiss could only swallow and nod. "I only wish your team could be here..."_

My team? _She looked around. The ballroom was emptying before her eyes. "Something isn't right." she said. She turned back. "They were here a minute ago." she told Pyrrha._

 _Pyrrha smiled. There were tears in her eyes. "You should go find them." she said as she started to fade. "You might be able to save them instead of me."_

 _"Pyrrha?" Weiss reached out, but she passed right through the ghost of a woman. "Wait!" She was gone._

 _Weiss ran. No mean feat in high heels, but she didn't care. Her team needed her._

 _She made it to their room. The door was closed. She opened it._

 _They were all there. She breathed a sigh of relief._

 _"You lost, ice queen?" Yang asked._

 _Weiss blinked. "What?"_

 _"Yeah." Ruby said. "Think your dorm's on the other side of campus." She looked back down at the game they were playing._

 _"What are you talking about?" Weiss demanded. "We're a team!"_

 _Blake's lips curled faintly. "All offense intended, you're the last person I'd want on my team."_

 _"But..."_

 _Ruby got up and closed the door in her face. Weiss stared at it until she woke up._


	3. Chapter 3

**Warnings for a severe panic attack, mentions of abuse, and some unpleasant things Adam might have done to Yang instead of 'just' cutting off an arm.**

* * *

As the song begins Blake thinks she might finally have some peace, but she flinches when the words come through. _Unforgettable, that's what you are... Unforgettable, though near or far..._

"Turn it off." she says to the bartender.

"You kidding?" the bartender says. "It's more trouble 'n' it's worth getting that thing to even turn on."

 _Like a song of love that clings to me, how the thought of you does things to me..._

Blake pulls out Gambol Shroud and shoots the radio. The bar falls silent. "I gave you a chance." she mutters. She tosses back the last of her drink and gets up to leave.

"Hey!" the bartender shouts. She hears him cock a shotgun. "You're gonna pay for that!"

"The same way you're gonna pay all the Faunus you've got working for you?" she asks over her shoulder. She can hear his finger start to tighten around the trigger. Before he can pull it, she is in front of him, cutting the barrel of the shotgun in half and pointing her blade at the bartender's face. Then instinct subsides, and she can see herself from the patrons' point of view. _Just another Huntress making trouble. Unprovoked assault. Like..._ her. She hastily reverses her grip and slams Gambol Shroud's hilt into his forehead, laying him out cold on the wood floor. She hurries out the door, cursing herself every step of the way. _Stupid. Now he's going to take it out on them. The boat leaves tomorrow, I can't possibly find other jobs for all of them before then. And they live here, I'm sure they'll have tried-_

The wound in her side, not fully healed, pulls her up short in front of a store. Breathing heavily, her gaze wanders to her reflection in the window. She's just far enough away that the light from inside doesn't quite reach all of her face. She sees **him** in her reflection and she can't help but cry out. "No!"

She hears his voice so close it's like he's standing right beside her. "You make me proud, my love." She whirls around in terror but there's nothing there. It comes from behind her next time. "She was holding you back. You were right to leave her."

She tries to respond even though she knows somewhere in her mind that it's useless, like her. "Leave me alone."

"I will never stop hunting you."

"No..."

"I love you."

Her head flies back. He used to hit her after saying that. "Please..." The scar in her side burns like his sword is still inside her. She screams. "I'm sorry!" She curls up on the pavement, trying to protect herself. "I'm sorry." she says again and again. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"Sorry isn't good enough." he says. "You have to earn my forgiveness."

The nightmares take her.

* * *

She dreams of a severed arm. A booted foot kicks it contemptuously towards an unconscious girl. The arm and the girl were once one. A sword is unsheathed. She tries to cry out but the arm is somehow covering her mouth at the same time as it lies at the girl's side. The sword is raised. The sword falls. There's a horrible sound. The sword is raised, drenched in a thick sticky substance. **Eyes.** "She is the price of your freedom." The sword falls, the sword is raised, and the sword falls, again and again and again. The body twitches every time.

She screams, but the dream is not done. The scene in the dining hall repeats. There are no happy endings. She sees herself dead through Yang's eyes. She sees Yang's head fly off; her hair fiery in death as in life just moments before, and cut far far too short. He kills her entire team as easily as he kills Yang before he takes her away with him.

Worst of all is the last. Gambol Shroud is the one to cut off Yang's arm, and she does not immediately fall unconscious from the pain. "Why?" she begs, and the betrayal in her voice is somehow worse than seeing her die as she has every night since she left. In the dream Blake says nothing, but when she awakens she screams as loud as she could.

* * *

"Easy!" someone tries to tell her. "You're all right." But Blake claws frantically at her head, trying to gouge the visions out. "Can we get some help over here?" Hands pull her arms away and ease her back down. Her breathing slows but remains irregular, an occasional spasm rocking her slender frame. "You're safe now." the person says. "We found you out on the street. Can you tell me your name?" Blake doesn't trust herself to answer. "Do you know who you are?"

 _Useless,_ she almost says. "I'm a traitor." she does say, choking out the words before she can help herself.

"Well I can't vouch for that." the person says. She's coming into view now, a hairless head speckled with scales looming over her. Blake tries to focus. There's something wrong with her eyes... "But you're a Faunus, like me. And like everyone else here." Blake lifts her head. Before the hands usher her back down she sees that the dimly lit room is full of Faunus. Some of them are trying to sleep, but most of them are gathered around her. She's glad she's never been claustrophobic.

As if sensing her thoughts, the scale-covered Faunus looks up. "Give the woman some space." she says clearly. "I'll call you if we need any further help." The crowd dissipates, and the Faunus looks back down at Blake. "We found you unconscious on the street."

 _Can't keep anything to yourself, can you?_ Blake thinks angrily. "I'm sorry to bother you. I should be going." she says and struggles to rise.

The Faunus places a hand on her shoulder. "You're not a bother." she says. "But you're not going anywhere. The streets aren't safe for our kind at night."

"I can take care of myself." Blake says. She reaches for Gambol Shroud to reassure herself that it's still there.

"Not in your condition." the woman laughs gently. "Stay with us. At least until sunrise."

Blake gives in. As she lays back down on the mat, she remembers where she's seen this woman before. "You were at the club." she says at last.

"A number of us were." the woman says. "We figured we owed you." she added.

"I didn't get your name." Blake says.

The woman frowns. "I...it doesn't matter."

Blake can tell there's a story behind those words, but right now she can't bring herself to care. "Then I guess mine doesn't matter either."

The woman nods. She offers her hand. As Blake takes it, she realizes that the woman's eyes are completely black. "You don't seem very worried about what happened." the woman says.

Blake shrugs. "It's happened before."

The woman seems understanding. "Do you need some company?"

Blake bites her lip. Then she nods. "Not _that_ kind." she hastens to add. "I just...don't want to be alone right now."

"I can believe that." the woman says as she sits down on the floor nearby.

They sit in silence. Blake is initially grateful for it, but soon it becomes nearly unbearable. "I'm not much of a talker." she says.

"You don't have to talk." the woman replies with a smile.

Blake nods. She looks away, wishing she could make herself understood.


	4. Chapter 4

The knocking continues. "I'm coming." Yang grumbles, though she's pretty sure what passes for her voice these days won't reach that far. She drags herself over to the door and pulls it open, the sudden exertion draining her more than it should've, so that she sounds far more irritable than she really is when she asks, "Where have you been?"

Sun blinks. "Well hello to you too." he says as he comes inside.

Yang slams the door and stands with her hand on her hip. "You keep disappearing for days on end. Answer the question." she demands.

"I've been helping out at Beacon." Sun says, as if that explains everything. "You know, the school you guys used to go to?"

"Helping out?" Yang says. "I thought the Grimm had the run of the place." Somewhere inside she knows her warrior's spirit should be burning at the thought of those monsters crawling all over campus. But she doesn't have a warrior's spirit any more.

"Yeah. Mostly." Sun admits. He sits down on the couch. Sits, doesn't sprawl. Yang didn't think he had it in him. "Glynda's been organizing hunting parties: raids, she calls 'em. Like we're bandits or something. A few of us go in every once in a while and try and thin the herd."

"What for?" Yang asks, not sitting down. "Beacon's a lost cause. There's no way you could clear them all out with that dragon still up there."

"I know!" Sun says, throwing his hands up. "But Glynda's dead set on it. And...I mean, it's not like we have anything better to do."

"You could go to school somewhere else." Yang says, moving over to the window to stare out of it. "Move on with your lives." _Like everyone else,_ she wants to add.

"Are you kidding?" Sun asks. Yang doesn't bother looking at him. "We're out for vengeance. Beacon wasn't our home but it sure didn't deserve what happened."

"Vengeance?" Now she looks at him. "Is vengeance gonna bring Ozpin back? Is vengeance going to bring Penny back? Or my arm, or-" Her voice catches in her throat. She wipes her eyes on her sleeve.

Sun gets up. He walks over as if his presence would bring her comfort. "Hey, take it easy." he says. "I miss Pyrrha too."

"Pyrrha..." Yang gasps suddenly. "Oh my gosh. I- I wasn't even thinking about her." It still doesn't seem real. The ridiculously tall, ridiculously talented, ridiculously beautiful, ridiculously red-haired warrior _goddess_ Pyrrha Nikos...dead? Yang thinks she must've spent hours, days even, trying to beat her just once.

 _"You know," Pyrrha said gently. "You'd have a far better chance of disarming me if you weren't so busy staring."_

 _"Staring?" Yang said. The implications of what Pyrrha had said registered just a little too late, just like the frantic left jab she threw out to cover herself. "I wasn't- I, I mean, I didn't mean..."_

 _"It's all right." Pyrrha chuckled. She swiped low, forcing Yang back. "You're hardly the first."_

 _From anyone else, even Yang herself, it might have sounded smug or self-satisfied. From Pyrrha, though..._

"Uhh, Yang?" Sun is standing a little too close for comfort. "Remnant to Miss Xiao Long...?"

Yang staggers back and swings at him. She catches him on the side of the head. "Ow!" He reels. "What the heck?"

"Don't you have any concept of personal space?" she hisses.

"What's that?" he asks, still clutching his head.

"It's where you don't get in someone's face unless they let you!"

"Okay, okay!" he says, getting to his feet. "I'll just be...outside. Doing whatever. In case you need me. Which you don't." He makes for the front door.

"Sun?" He stops, his hand on the handle. "Why are you here?" Yang asks.

"Why am I here? You just asked me like five minutes ago why I _wasn't_ here!"

"I mean..." Her eyes drift sideways. "Why me? You were way closer to _her_. We barely even talked."

Sun shrugs. "My team needed me. And this is basically the only place I can really relax after hunting Grimm for days on end."

"Oh." That's all it takes for Yang to feel terrible again. "I'm sorry, I should've-" _Should've what? Never opened my mouth in the first place?_

"Don't worry about it." Sun says, waving a hand. "You've got your own problems." He opens the door and adds over his shoulder, "I'll be around."

The door closes, leaving Yang alone with her thoughts. Or so she thinks. Something whines from next to her. She looks down. Zwei cocks his head quizzically. "It's okay Zwei." She kneels down to rub him between the ears. "Let's go back to the room, okay?" Her old room is pristine, if dusty. She uses the guest room instead. It feels more like her room than the one she'd grown up in. She gets back into bed with a groan and stares at the wall.


	5. Chapter 5

The crunch of snow under approaching feet doesn't worry Nora. It's coming from behind her, and it sounds exactly like the footsteps their newest member makes. Nevertheless she looks over her shoulder to be certain. "Halt!" she whisper-yells. "Who goes there? Friend or foe?"

Ruby yawns. "It's me, Nora. I'm up for guard duty."

Nora leans on her hammer. "You don't _look_ up for guard duty!" she says. "You been having those dreams again?" she asks.

"No." Ruby says unconvincingly. She looks away from Nora's searching gaze. "I slept fine. Just...not enough."

"Yup!" Nora says. "I hear ya." She steps aside to let Ruby take her place, then asks, "Are you sure you don't wanna talk about it?"

"Yes." Ruby sighs. "I'm fine Nora."

Nora leans in close to her and narrows her eyes. "Oh well." she says. "If you're _sure_..." She stands up and walks away, muttering.

Ruby looks off into the night. For a moment she almost prays for a Grimm attack to take her mind off things. _No, no, no!_ she thinks. _That'd bring them running for sure! Happy thoughts, Ruby, happy thoughts!_

She doesn't think she has any happy thoughts that frequent visits haven't worn down to a dim glow. She settles for one that's as close to gold as any.

 _Ruby walked the fairgrounds. She didn't have anything in mind or any place to be, which was just fine with her._

 _A pair of hands suddenly fastened over her eyes. A deadpan voice said, "You have three chances to guess who this is."_

 _"Umm..." Ruby said to cover her thoughts. "Well, you sound like Ciel Soleil, but you're over_ there _-" She pointed to where the voice had come from. "And I've only ever seen you with Penny, which means..." Ruby gasped. "Is this Penny?"_

 _There was a giggle from behind her, and the hands removed themselves."Sal-u-tations!" Penny Polendina said._

 _Ruby hugged her. "It's so good to see you!" she cried. Penny hugged her back hard, though not quite as hard as Yang was prone to doing. When Ruby let go, she said, "But I thought General Ironwood was keeping you under wraps."_

 _"He_ was _!" Penny said happily. "But several of the engineers responsible for maintaining me recommended allowing me out of the laboratory for approximately one Remnant day. They said it would help reduce people's suspicions of me when I am eventually deployed into a civilian population."_

 _Ciel cleared her throat. "I would advise against such terminology while we are out in the field, Penny." she said. "It makes you sound less than organic in form."_

 _"I think she's right." Ruby said. "I mean, some people already have trouble with Faunuses, and they're all 'organic in form'." she added._

 _Penny Polendina pondered this particular predicament. (Ruby liked her play on words.) "Hmm. It seems as though it would take far more than one of me to win over hearts and minds, as the engineers intended. And yet, if even one of my hypothetical brethren misbehaved, it would take even more of us to undo any prejudices their misbehavior might have created."_

 _"I'm not used to seeing you so...thoughtful." Ruby said._

 _"Oh!" Penny said. She turned to look at Ruby. "My apologies!" She smiled and tilted her head. "I am pondering the mysteries of life, the nature of conscious thought, and the reasoning or lack thereof someone might employ to explain their prejudicial behavior. It's what I do on my 'down time'." She even used air quotes!_

 _That didn't sound like an enjoyable way to pass the time to Ruby. "So what do you do for fun?" she asked, the seeds of an idea beginning to germinate in the back of her mind._

 _"Fun?" Penny blinked. "Fun is a concept that has never been explained to my satisfaction. It would make an excellent addition to my databanks if you can explain it."_

 _"I could..." Ruby said. "Or I could show you. A picture's worth a thousand words, right?" She grabbed Penny's hand and pulled her along._

 _Penny did not seem bothered by this. "Where are we going?" she asked. "Should we perhaps slow down so Miss Soleil can catch up?" she added when Ruby didn't answer right away._

 _"What she doesn't know won't hurt her!" Ruby said._

 _They came to a halt in a clearing, where a group of people were dancing to live music. "What is this?" Penny asked._

 _"It's dancing! It's fun! It's 'Saddle the Pony'! Come on!" Ruby said. She seized her friend by her other hand and spun them both into the crowd._

"Ruby?" Jaune's voice rouses her from her reverie. "It's my turn."

"Oh! Sorry!" Ruby says as she scrabbles to her feet. "I think I must've fallen asleep or something."

Jaune just nods as he settles into his post. "You probably shouldn't let it happen again." he says. "There's no telling what's out here."

Ruby fidgets with Crescent Rose. "Jaune...?" He looks up at her. "I know I've said this before, but...I'm really sorry."

Jaune closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath, and when he opens them, he looks almost like he used to back at Beacon. "I know Ruby. I can't promise I'm always going to act like I do, but...I know."

Ruby smiles at him through sudden tears falling down her face. She puts a hand on his shoulder before she returns to the campsite.


	6. Chapter 6

There's a knock at the door. Weiss remembers that knock. "What is it Whitley?" she asks.

The handle jiggles, but the door doesn't open. Weiss turns to look at it. After a moment, she hears his voice from the other side. "Sister? Might I have...some help with the door?"

She sighs. She gets up. She opens the door. He's standing almost directly in front of her with a large box in his arms. She looks down at him. "I can't remember the last time you asked for my help." she says.

Whitley peers around the edge of the box in his arms. "That's amusing." he says. "I can't remember the last time you were around for me to ask."

She stiffens slightly. That is all she permits herself to do. "What is that?" she asks.

"This-" he says, edging past her into her room. "-is a gift. From me. Father's idea; he thought you might want to experiment with different songs. It only follows that you'd need a record player for some of the older ones."

"That was..." She considers her words carefully. "Thoughtful."

Whitley shrugs. "He likes to plan ahead."

"And what do you get out of it?" She looks at him again.

"I get exercise." He arches his back. _Poor posture,_ Weiss notes. "I may not plan on being a Huntsman like you, but I'm certainly not going to sit around and become fat like so many of Father's business partners." A frown crosses his face. "Don't tell him I said that."

"I won't." Weiss says. "If you take my appreciation back to Father, and express it appropriately."

"You drive a hard bargain." Whitley smiles faintly. "So be it." He makes his way back to the door, pausing to ask over his shoulder, "I trust you'll be joining us for supper?"

"I may." Weiss says as she begins to unpack Father's gift. "I have a lot of work to do."

Whitley sighs. "Ah, don't we all. The perils of being a Schnee." He bows, and closes the door as he leaves.

It takes Weiss longer than she would have liked to set the old machine up properly, despite reading and rereading the instructions several times. Thankfully, she has at least something to show for her work, as Father has graciously included a few records for her to sample. The first one she tries appears to be defective, emitting only silence. She puts it back into its sleeve, and chooses another one.

The second one begins, after some scratching sounds, with a guitar. Almost from the first word Weiss can feel tears pricking at her eyes.

 _"Now won't you listen dearie while I say, how can you tell me that you're goin' away? Don't say that we must part; don't break my aching heart. You know I've loved you truly many years, I loved you night and day. How can you leave me? Can't you see my tears? Listen while I say..."_

Alone in her room while the song plays and the lights are turned off, Weiss permits herself to remember Pyrrha Nikos, and to cry.

* * *

 _Looking back on it, it was Pyrrha's fault. Of course it was. She was just so..._ so. _So it was hardly unexpected that when they bumped into each other on a midnight snack run, Weiss had been in such a state of shock that she'd dropped the glass of water she'd been carrying._

 _"Oh!" Pyrrha had cried. "Let me help you." And she did, setting her plate of fruits on the counter and hurrying to get some spare cloth to clean up the bits of broken glass._

 _Weiss had stood there apologizing while Pyrrha had done all the work. She'd been quite unable to get down and help her; for one, because she'd never had to do such a thing herself, and two, because Pyrrha's nightshirt had been splashed with water and Weiss was seeing things that she'd been steadfastly averting her gaze from every time they'd been in the shower or locker room together._

 _"I think that's all of it." Pyrrha had said at last. She looked up, and gasped. "You're bleeding!"_

 _Weiss looked down at herself. "What? Where?"_

 _Pyrrha stood up and took Weiss's hands in her own. Weiss felt like dying. "It's on your hands. See?" She pointed to a splotch of blood with her thumb before running it and the rest of her fingers over Weiss's hands, probing for injury._

 _Weiss somehow never got around to telling her that the blood had come from her nose._


	7. Chapter 7

Blake looks toward the docks. "My boat's going to be leaving soon." She looks back at the Faunus. "I never asked. Why did you feel like you owed me?"

The Faunus smiles. "Sometimes all it takes is the right kind of person in the right place to spark a revolution."

Blake shivers. She thinks the woman means well, but the word revolution still makes her uneasy. "Revolutions are messy things." she says. "Not all of them work out."

"Some don't." the woman agrees. "But some do. Perhaps ours, if we end up getting one, will be one that does."

Blake manages a shrug. It's all that she feels comfortable doing. "Maybe we'll see each other again some day." she says, holding out a hand.

The woman takes it in hers. "I think we will." she says. A cloud passes over the sun. Is it just Blake's imagination or did the woman's voice grow deeper just now? She lets go of the woman's hand a little too quickly, and hurries off.

* * *

She stares out at the sea. Ideally she'd prefer to be in her cabin, or on solid land, but the cabin is too small and empty. And land is still a long way away. _Not like you deserve to be comfortable anyway,_ she thinks darkly.

It's easy to keep her mind empty here. It's quiet, even with all the passengers she'd seen getting on at the dock. Quiet is nice when it's a choice. If she starts to feel the pressure of all the things she's running from, she can go find some people to be near. Faunus, like her. It'll be good to be home. Won't it?

"But how long before you're running away again?"

Blake shakes her head. "Go away Weiss." she whispers.

"Hey Blake!" Not-Ruby says. "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves-"

"Ruby..."

"Everybody's nerves-"

Blake grits her teeth.

"Everybody's nerves!"

Blake closes her eyes. _They're not even real. Just stop listening and they'll disappear._

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes!"

Something hits the ship.

It's big. It towers over her. And it has red eyes.

 _Useless_.

Her grip tightens on Gambol Shroud. _I'll show you useless._ And she jumps. She's flying through the air, one clone then another appearing underfoot. She hooks the Grimm, swings around it and shoots. It barely even notices.

 _Useless._

She loses herself in the fight. She clips the Grimm's wings and forces it low enough for the crew of the ship to try and shoot at it. She's working on lining it up for the big gun to land the finishing blow, when Not-Ruby says, "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves-"

Blake's eyes go wide. The Grimm hits her with its tail. She goes flying into a pile of rocks, and almost into the sea. She scrabbles for purchase on the cliff. _Not water, not water, not water..._

"Everybody's nerves-"

The Grimm looms over her, energy gathering in its mouth. She doesn't have enough Aura to absorb that kind of force. She probably never will.

"Everybody's nerves!"

 **Boom.** The side of the Grimm's head explodes. A cheer goes up from the crew. Her ears flatten. She sighs in relief.

As she waits for the _Pride_ to come near enough for her to use her Semblance to cross over to it, Not-Ruby says once more, "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this. Is. How. It. Goes."

* * *

She reaches for the knocker, but Not-Weiss's voice makes her freeze. "It's not too late for you to run away again. Run into the desert. No one would ever find you there."

"Except the wildlife." Not-Ruby says. "You could go out in a blaze of glory! Pssshew!"

"The real Ruby would never stoop so low as saying 'pssshew'." Blake grumbles.

"Maybe not, but she's a long way away." Not-Ruby sounds apologetic, like the real one would. "We're all you have."

"And where's Yang in all of this?" Blake knows she shouldn't confront them; it's just giving them more attention, but at least it keeps her from knocking on the door.

Not-Ruby and Not-Weiss look at each other. Somehow they turn into Yang. "Is this better?" Her right arm is gone, just like the real one. The stump is dripping blood.

Blake turns and bangs on the front door as loud as she can. Not-Yang doesn't say anything. She doesn't have to. In her mind's ear, she can hear the insistent _dripdripdrip_. It's worse than even Not-Ruby's singing.

"Blake?" The door is open.

Blake falls forward into her arms, sobbing. "Hi mom." she says weakly after what feels like forever.


	8. Chapter 8

**Warnings for a dissociative episode.**

* * *

Yang stares at the wall, but she doesn't see it. She's lost in her memories. It's been happening more and more lately. Her face is soft. Zwei doesn't see it, being, for one, a dog, and two, asleep.

The front door slamming shut awakens her to reality. Suddenly she doesn't want to be alone. She pulls back the covers and hops out of bed. Behind her, Zwei rolls over and barks. She'd thrown the covers over him by accident.

Taiyang looks up when he hears her coming down the stairs. "Hey kiddo." he says as she stands in the doorway. "Wanna help me put away the groceries?"

She nods. The milk she can deal with, surprising herself with her ingenuity by using her foot to open the door to the fridge. She picks up a box of something without looking at it. It's only when she puts it on the shelf that she catches a glimpse of the logo. Pumpkin Pete's. The poor girl's face is still on the front of the box too. She drops the box to the floor. She hears her sister's voice in her ears. _"PYYYYYYYRRHHHHAAAAA!"_

 _It doesn't make any sense,_ she thinks to herself as her shoulders start to shake. _I wasn't even awake when that happened. Was she really screaming that loud?_

Taiyang looks up abruptly. "Yang? Yang honey, what's wrong?"

Yang runs away. She runs back into her room, fiercely closing the door behind her, and collapses face-first onto the bed, trying to remember how to cry as best as she can.

Zwei wiggles out from under the blanket and waddles over to her. She doesn't notice him until he gives her face a lick and curls up beside her head. He wags his tail when she reaches out and pulls him in closer. "You're not going anywhere, right buddy?" she says through her chattering jaws. He whines.

Little by little her panic recedes. She turns her head to the side and takes huge gulps of air to try and calm herself. _Get ahold of yourself Xiao Long,_ she thinks. _Pyrrha's gone. Throwing a hissy fit because of a picture won't bring her back._ That proves to be her last coherent thought for quite a while. Things flicker in and out of her mind, and she can't quite bring herself to focus on any of them. She rolls over to stare at the ceiling, watching the blades on the fan go round and round and round and round and round...

From somewhere in the house she hears someone crooning. Taiyang must have one of the radios on to distract himself. _"Dream, when you're feelin' blue... Dream, that's the thing to do..."_ And Yang Xiao Long leaves herself behind. She's distantly aware that time is passing. She sits up and staggers over to her pile of books, flipping through them without even remembering the other girl who loved to read. Nothing seems to stick. She sees Sun outside, looking thoughtfully at a tree. She opens the window. Sun turns around almost immediately. "Hey Yang." he says, like it's just another day. "Everything okay?"

She frowns. "I don't know." she says.

"What do you mean, you don't know?"

She shrugs. "I don't know." she says.

"Okay..." Sun says. "How you feeling?"

"I don't know." she repeats. Sun sighs. "I think something's...wrong." she says.

"Yeah? What gave you that idea?"

If she was herself right now she'd bristle at the passive-aggressiveness of his tone, though she might not have called it that even to herself. Instead she just sits on the windowsill and lets her eyes flicker around the scenery. Sun watches her uneasily. "I'm gonna go get Taiyang." he says.

"No." she says. He looks back at her. "I...I don't want him to worry."

"Worry? He's your dad!" He starts to leave.

Something about that makes her reach out with her one good arm, throwing her center of balance off. She tumbles and lands hard on her other arm. Sun stiffens at the sound. He hurries back to her. "Yang! What happened?"

"I fell out of the window," she grunts. "What's it look like?" She tries to get to her feet. This proves to be a bad idea. Everything hurts at once, and it takes a colossal amount of effort not to cry out in agony.

"You just fell out a second-story window." Sun says, kneeling beside her. "You may experience _slight_ discomfort until your Aura kicks in."

"Thank you Professor Wukong." she says through gritted teeth. "Where would I be without you in Aura 101?"

"If Aura worked that way, you could try borrowing some of mine. But it doesn't, so..." He trails off into awkward silence. He shrugs it off and lays down beside her on the ground.

She sighs. "Is it supposed to take this long?"

"Why, you got somewhere to be?"

She makes a face. "I hate it when you're that right about something."

Sun laughs. "It doesn't happen often though, right?"

"No," she had to admit, "but it did just happen again."

Somewhat to her surprise Sun takes the hint and keeps quiet. They lie there together, Yang trying not to think about the last time she gazed at the sky with a Faunus by her side. _Too late._

"Sun?" she says at last.

"Huh?" he says.

"I'm sorry for hitting you. And for...being so angry."

He looks over. "You hit me?"

"Earlier today." She looks over at him. "You really don't remember, do you?"

"Nnnno... Gimme a second." His brow crinkles in thought. "Oh!" he says suddenly. "That!" He shrugs again. "It's like I said: don't worry about it." he says.

"It's- It's not something friends are supposed to do to each other." Yang says. She finds herself unable to look at him any more.

"Well yeah but you don't make a habit out of it. And as long as you keep it that way, it's all good."

"Thanks." Yang says. It's all she can manage. She struggles to sit up. It's harder with just one arm. "I think I'm gonna change my clothes." she says. "Maybe a shower too." She tries standing up, but a wave of exhaustion sweeps over her. "Can you gimme a..." She grimaces. "...give me...some help?"

"Never thought I'd hear that out of you." he tries to quip.

"Sun-"

"I gotcha, I gotcha." He bounces to his feet, holds out a hand, which she grudgingly takes, and lets her pull on him to bring herself back upright. She gives him a nod and brushes as much dirt as she can off her jacket. "You missed a spot." he tells her. He points to a smudge on her left sleeve. A smudge she has no way of reaching. He's about to wipe it off himself, but she makes a noise, and he looks up at her for permission. She nods again stiffly. "There we go." he says as he cleans it up. "That's better, right?"

"I guess so." she says. Then she adds, unable to help herself, "Given that I fell in the dirt because I'm too clumsy to look out a window properly."

"You're not clumsy." he says. "You just haven't gotten used to things. Give yourself some credit." He pats her a little too hard on the back. She stumbles, and glares at him. "Sorry." he says.

She sighs. "I know." she says. "Help me in through the window?"

He looks curiously at her as she gets herself into position. "You know, there are these things called doors you can use. They're like windows, only bigger."

"I know." she says. "But like I said, I don't want to bother dad." She returns his look with one of impatience. "You gonna help me or what?"

"Sure, but how?"

"Stand over there." She indicates a spot on her right with her stump.

He does as she says. "Now what?"

"Gimme a boost!" she says, grabbing the lower roof.

Sun thinks fast. He thinks about boosting her by the waist, then he remembers girls tend to not like it when you do that. He settles for one hand under her arm and the other under her foot. He doesn't mind dirt, which is good, because she gets it all over his hand. She pokes her head up when she makes it over. "I did it!" she says.

He grins at her. "Of course you did." he says.

"Thanks Sun." she says, almost shyly. Then she disappears, and the window closes.

He waits there for a while, but she doesn't come back. "I guess she's taking that shower like she said." he says to no one in particular. He shrugs, dusts off his hands, and is about to set off on another walk when his stomach grumbles. "What, again?" he asks it. It grumbles as if in response. "You're worse than the Grimm." he jokes.

If he hadn't been so hungry, perhaps he would have noticed he was being followed. Then again, his pursuer is very good at not being noticed.

* * *

She had never thought of herself as buff before. Yes, there had been occasional boasts about her 'guns', but it was like the saying goes: fake it til you make it.

"And I sure don't have it now." she says aloud. Even falling out and getting back in through the window had taken so much out of her. Now she's only barely upright, head down and letting the water from the shower-head pour over her. "Good thing dad already did the dishes." The water and the sound it produces are, in a way, at her control. If she moves, the sound changes. If she adjusts the handles, the temperature changes. Sometimes even that can be enough.

It doesn't last, though. A stray worry about the water bill next month is all it takes for Yang to turn one handle then the other and pull back the curtain. Then she blinks. "That's weird." she murmurs. "I could've sworn I brought a change of clothes in here..." She narrows her eyes. "And I _know_ I closed that door behind me..."

She charges out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel hastily wrapped around herself. "SUN!" she bellows. Sun drops his fork with a loud clatter, and he and Taiyang whirl around to face her as she storms into the kitchen. "Did you take my clothes?" she yells at him.

"What? No! What do you take me for?"

His protestations are somewhat less than inspiring, but then again so is his very presence. Yang becomes aware that Taiyang is staring at her. "What?" she asks, a little more angrily than she wanted to.

"He's been in here the whole time. We've been, uh, talking." he says. "Are you sure you brought them in with you?"

"Yes!" she says. Then she hesitates. "Well, I was... Where could they have gone?"

Sun picks up his fork again. Yang whacks him over the head with a magazine anyway. Not too hard. "Ow!"

"Personal. Space." she says warningly, and heads back to her room. She makes sure the door is closed before she turns around.

There's someone on her bed, legs crossed, hands in her lap, clutching an umbrella, wearing the very clothes Yang had set out for herself, several sizes too large on her. " **You**." Yang hisses. She clamps the stump of her right arm to her side and swings with her left.

The pink-haired girl from the train leans out of the way, then straightens up as if nothing has happened. Yang swings again. The pink-haired girl dodges. She's still smiling. Yang has always hated that about her. Yang swings again, faster this time, but the pink-haired girl still dodges it. She swings again, her blood beginning to boil. _I didn't stand a chance against her before, and that's when I still had all my limbs. I can't even try to kick without losing this towel!_ Yang swipes the thought out of her head and punches. The pink-haired girl hardly even pretends to dodge this time. All the helplessness and anger of the past several months comes to a head, and Yang howls "Let me hit you!" at the top of her lungs. The girl's lips curl slightly. She lashes out, lightning-fast.

Yang goes flying backwards, her impact with the wall knocking what little air she still has from her lungs. The pink-haired girl seems as though she hasn't moved. "You hit me back that time." Yang manages to say. "Soon as I get up I'm...gonna put your head through this wall behind me." She coughs.

The pink-haired girl tilts her head. Suddenly she looks sharply towards the door. "Yang? Are you all right? What's going on in there?" Taiyang asks from the other side. Yang's eyes grow wide. She tries to cry out that there's an intruder, but it's still hard to breathe. The pink-haired girl sashays over, leans in and locks the door. Only then does she deign to look at Yang, who's struggling to get to her feet. She shakes her head and kicks Yang lightly in the side as a warning to keep still.

Normally Yang doesn't feel her eyes change color. It's more of a part-and-parcel deal. Her eyes change; her blood pressure goes through the roof, and her Semblance along with it. But this time she does, or maybe she sees it reflected in her opponent's mismatched pair. She grabs the pink-haired girl by the leg and gives her a spin. The pink-haired girl lands on the floor with a satisfying thud. Yang stands up, grabbing a spare shirt from an open drawer and brandishing it as a makeshift weapon. "I don't need two arms to beat you." she says with a sudden smile. "I don't even need clothes on."

The pink-haired girl simply lays there. "Didn't expect me to fight back huh?" Yang says as she advances forward. "To be honest, I can't say I blame ya."

Something slams into her from behind. She falls forward, and the pink-haired girl's body vanishes less than a second before Yang would have landed on her. She grunts as she hits the floor, and is about to get back onto her feet when the pink-haired girl steps on her back. "How- how did-" The girl steps down harder and Yang groans. _It's over,_ she thinks. _I hope I made everyone proud._ Then she remembers she's all alone.

"What are you waiting for?" she spits. "Do you like to toy with your prey or something?"

There's a sound Yang dimly remembers from the train: the _shiiiink_ of a blade being drawn. Yang is breathing heavily, adrenaline leaving her system to be replaced with the old familiar numbness. She feels the touch of metal against her jugular vein. She blinks back tears. _I'm crying,_ she realizes suddenly. "I'm sorry Ruby." she whispers. "Weiss, dad, Zwei, Sun. Everyone. Even you Blake..." Oh gods does she miss Blake. For an instant it's like the pain she'd felt on first waking up had never left. Her heart feels like it will explode. She barely even registers the blade leaving her throat. Then the heel is lifted, its owner walks away, and the bedsprings creak as the pink-haired girl sits back down.


	9. Chapter 9

_Weiss didn't tell anyone, but somehow they knew anyway._

 _She was not too proud to admit to herself that resorting to trying to schedule their study periods together like she'd done back in the first semester was not her subtlest move. But the memory of how Pyrrha's skin had felt against her own had haunted Weiss's every hour, waking or sleeping._

 _She started writing notes advising Pyrrha to switch schools. It was too far away from her home, she said in one. In another, she'd said that Beacon's standards seemed to be slipping. It was only after she'd managed to get it to Pyrrha that she wondered if she should have mentioned Jaune more directly_.

 _Pyrrha, confused and a little hurt, had taken her problem to Yang. Yang saw through Weiss's ruse the way only a member of her team could have, and marched down to the library, with Pyrrha in tow, wringing her hands in a way that made Weiss's heart ache when she saw it._

 _"I'm sorry I insulted Jaune." Weiss said reluctantly. "I know it's not his fault he has the situational awareness of an exceptionally dense and blind baboon."_

 _Yang threw a pillow from the pillow loft into Weiss's face. "You made it sound like you were talking about_ her _." Yang said once Weiss had finished spluttering._

 _That, of course, caused Weiss to stumble over her words all over again. "Pyrrha! I am so sorry! I would_ never _say such things about you!" she said after much trial and error._

 _Pyrrha rubbed her upper arms and didn't meet Weiss's gaze. "I'm aware of that." she said shyly. "But...it's the fact you would say that about anyone that concerns me, not to mention Jaune is my teammate."_

 _"Jaune doesn't deserve you!"_

 _Pyrrha looked angry. "How would you know?" she asked._

 _Weiss discovered then that she didn't know. "I..." she said, trying to get her thoughts in order. "I-"_

 _Yang spoke up. "Pyrrha," she said. Pyrrha turned. "Weiss doesn't see what you see. That's not a bad thing. It just makes her different. Maybe you could try to show her sometime." Pyrrha blushed. "And Weiss?" Weiss refused to look at either of them. "If you really do have feelings for Pyrrha, maybe you could try to be open-minded about how she feels about Jaune."_

 _"I do not have feelings for Pyrrha!" Weiss shouted. "Why would you even say such a thing?!"_

 _Yang hopped down and put her right arm around Weiss's shoulders. "Weiss Schnee, you know I love you, but you are the most useless lesbian in all of Beacon."_


	10. Chapter 10

Neither Taiyang Xiao Long nor Sun Wukong had any real idea what to expect when they finally broke down the door to the spare guest room where Yang was living now. Somewhere towards the bottom of that list, however, was the aforementioned Yang laying down on the floor and crying, wearing nothing but a towel, while a girl with disheveled pink-and-brown hair and a set of Yang's clothes that are far too large on her sat on the edge of the bed, watching them with a smile.

Taiyang hurries to his daughter's side. "Yang? Come on honey, talk to me." He turns on the stranger at the same time that Sun does. "What did you do to her?"

The girl continues to smile.

"I'm all right." Yang sniffs, regaining everyone's attention. "I'm all right."

"You're not all right." Taiyang states the obvious. "This place looks like a warzone. Who is this?"

"I don't know." Yang says as her father helps her to her feet. "She was...she was on the train with Torchwick before the Breach. And then she just...shows up in here, sitting on my bed, wearing my clothes." She takes an angry step forward towards the girl. "How did you get in here?" she demands.

The girl points towards the door with her umbrella.

"Don't play smart with me." Yang spits, raising her fist.

Taiyang intercedes. "Hold on there, Yang. Let's take this out to the front room, shall we?" He glares at the pink-haired girl. She studies him for a moment, as if trying to figure out where she'd seen him before. Then, as if a light had gone on, she hops to her feet and saunters out the door. Sun follows her warily. Taiyang lingers in the doorway. "You go on and get dressed. We'll make sure she doesn't cause any more trouble."

It takes Yang longer than she would have liked to get dressed. Her chest and back scream every time she moves, and she wonders how long it'll take her Aura to clear up the bruises she can tell are already beginning to form. Getting the stump of her right arm into the sleeve is something she still isn't used to. She supposes it's one of the reasons she puts off taking a shower so much.

A thought occurs to her as she's inspecting herself in the mirror. She limps to the front room and asks, "Where's Zwei?"

Taiyang frowns. "That's a good question." He rounds on the pink-haired girl. "All right young lady, what did you do with our dog?"

She frowns, then makes a fist and hits herself over the head, rolling her eyes back as she does so.

"You did what?!" Yang growls.

Sun springs up. "I'll go and look for him!" he says.

"No!" Yang says. "He's my dog!"

"I'll go." Taiyang says.

"Dad!"

The pink-haired girl watches all of this.

Father and daughter stare meaningfully at one another. Then the father sighs. "All right Yang. Just be careful; this little creature might not be alone."

Yang rushes as fast as she can out the door. She finds Zwei off to the left of the house. He stirs and whimpers as she comes close, and she picks him up gingerly with her arm and her stump. "Aww, what that mean little lady do to my Zwei?" she coos at him, unable to keep the tremor from her voice. Thankfully Zwei doesn't seem to notice. He whimpers again and nestles close to her. "It's okay buddy. I got you." She keeps talking to him all the way back to the front room. "He's okay." she says. "Just a nasty knock on the head." She nuzzles his stomach and he pants happily.

Taiyang and Sun sigh with relief. Yang locks eyes with the pink-haired girl. "All right, creep. Start talking."

The pink-haired girl folds her arms. Everyone glares at her. "Well?" Sun demands after a moment.

She shrugs.

Taiyang stands up. "If that's the way you want it..." he begins ominously.

Yang transposes herself between them. "Hold on a minute dad." She turns to the girl. "The whole time I've known you, you haven't said a single word. I don't even think I've heard you grunting when we fight." The pieces come together for the other two present as she says, "You...can't talk, can you?"

The pink-haired girl shakes her head.

"Well," Taiyang sighs. "That makes getting information a bit more difficult."

"Can you write?" Yang prompts her.

The girl rolls her eyes. She taps her wrist, then, when that fails to get the point across, points at the clock.

"What...?" Yang frowns.

The girl mimes something going around in a circle. Then she points at the clock again.

"It'd take too long?" Yang asks.

The girl nods.

Yang sighs. "Okay, fine. We'll just..." She's about to give up, but something in her tells her differently. "No." she agrees out loud. She takes a step closer to the pink-haired girl. "You're going to answer our questions." The girl looks scornfully at her. "You don't have anything better to do, right? That's why you're here instead of off with the bad guys."

"Yang," Taiyang says. "They might have sent her as a spy."

They all notice the pink-haired girl's reaction is one of just as much scorn as before. "You don't get along with them huh?" Taiyang asks. She shakes her head. "Okay." He scratches his chin. "First things first. How'd you get in?"

She points over her shoulder at the door. "Not this again..." Yang gripes.

"No, hang on." Sun says. He turns to Taiyang. "You told me to shut the door when I came in, remember? And I said I thought I did..."

"So she just walked in here after you?" Taiyang says.

"That sounds about right." Yang says thoughtfully. "Ruby said something about her disappearing a lot when she tried fighting Roman." The girl's face falls a little, but Yang is too caught up in her thoughts to notice. "And when we were fighting a minute ago, I saw her lying on the ground, but something hit me from behind, and just before I fell onto her, she vanished."

The pink-haired girl nods, but holds up two fingers very close to one another. "I'm almost right?" Yang guesses. The pink-haired girl shakes her head and spreads her arms wide. Then she holds up the two fingers again in the space she just indicated. "That's only part of what you can do." Yang says. The pink-haired girl nods again.

"So, what's the whole of it?" Sun asks.

Yang looks at him. "She's not going to give up all her secrets just because she's got nowhere to go." The girl looks almost proudly around the room.

Taiyang clears his throat. "Now for the big one." He gets in close. "Why. Are. You. Here."

"And why'd you put on my clothes and wait for me in my room?" Yang asks. An unpleasant thought arises. "Were you...going to replace me?"

The pink-haired girl shakes her head at Yang, then looks to Taiyang and shrugs broadly. If a shrug could be loud, hers would be. Everyone sighs. "Seriously?" Sun asks. The pink-haired girl stares at him. "Well, I don't think we're gonna get anything else out of her. What should we do with her?"

"I say kick her out on her behind." Taiyang offers. "Or turn her in to the cops. If she hung around with Roman Torchwick, I'm sure she's got a rap sheet."

Yang finds herself studying the pink-haired girl's face. She thinks she's holding it carefully neutral. She can't be sure, of course, but she's certainly not smiling like she tends to. "Dad?" Taiyang looks at her. "This is gonna sound crazy, and...it probably is, but...can we keep her?"

"Yang!"

"Just for like a week or two? If she promises not to hurt anyone, I'd...I'd really like some company."

"Yang, she broke into your home, stole your clothes and assaulted you in your own room!" Sun says. "And that's just today!"

"And besides, you have us and Zwei for company!" Taiyang says.

Zwei wags his tail.

"I know!" Yang says. "But I have...not a good feeling exactly, but not a bad one?" She hastens to ask the pink-haired girl before her father or Sun can interject. "If you promise not to hurt anyone, will you stay here with us?"

The pink-haired girl swings her feet back and forth and stares at the floor in thought. Everyone watches her anxiously. Finally she stands up, looks directly at Yang and offers a curtsy.

Yang breaks out into a smile. "Great!" she says. "We'll get you set up in the guest room. I was in there before, but you're a real guest, so you take priority!" Then, as an afterthought, "Oh, and dad, you might want to confiscate her umbrella. It kind of has a sword inside it."

Taiyang's eye twitches. "Of course it does." he mutters. He strides forward and tries to pull the umbrella from the pink-haired girl. She reacts violently, grabbing it with both hands, her eyes wild.

"Dad!" Yang cries out. "Be careful!"

The pink-haired girl attempts to kick Taiyang in the face, but he takes advantage of her momentary distraction by yanking hard on the umbrella. Tearing it from her grasp, he spins back and points it at her. She's breathing heavily, though Yang doesn't think it's due to overexertion. "You're not bad." Taiyang says. "If you weren't wearing clothes that were two or three sizes too big for you, you might've hit me with that move." She takes a step forward. He takes a step to the side. "Uh uh. My house, my rules. Until I think I can trust you with this, I'm going to put it somewhere you can't get to it. I don't want you stabbing any of us in our sleep."

The pink-haired girl clenches her fists. Yang stands behind her. "Hey." she says quietly. The girl turns her head. "Let's get you some clothes that actually fit, huh?" Yang suggests. The girl looks back at Taiyang. Yang can't see her expression, but she's guessing it's not good. Then the girl turns on her heel and motions for Yang to lead her away. Her gesture reminds Yang of Weiss in those first few tense days of school. She wonders what Weiss is doing now. She hopes she's okay.

Yang tucks Zwei into his bed and takes the pink-haired girl upstairs. "This used to be Ruby's room." she says as she opens the door. "I guess it still is, but...she's not here right now." The pink-haired girl looks around politely but without much enthusiasm. Yang opens up the closet. "I hope Ruby won't mind if we use some of her old stuff." Yang says as she begins her hunt. "I'd leave a note, but it'd probably get lost the moment she came home." She's surprised at how much talking she's doing, perhaps to make up for the pink-haired girl's inability to respond in kind.

There's a tap on her shoulder. When Yang turns, the pink-haired girl tilts her head to the side.

"What?" Yang asks.

The girl frowns, puts a hand above her eyes and looks around the room.

"You want to know where she is?" The girl nods. Yang sighs. "It doesn't matter. She's...a long way away." She turns back to the closet. She sees the glare the pink-haired girl gives her, but she's too wrapped up in thoughts of her sister to give it much notice.

"There's not much left..." Yang says after a little while. "I guess everything else was at Beacon." Just as she says that, she spies something in the far back, almost hidden by the onset of dusk. She puts on her best pulp-fiction voice. "Concealed in shadows..." She spins around, brandishing two hangars. "The Slayer emerges at last!"

The pink-haired girl blinks slowly.

"It's what she called it." Yang says. "It's her Slayer outfit."

The girl buries her face in her hand.

"Don't give me that." Yang scolds her. "They all had names. Mine was called Hunter." She walks over to where the pink-haired girl is waiting. "What happened to your old clothes anyway?"

The girl makes a grab for the hangars, but Yang holds them out of her reach. The girl sighs without making a noise. She arches a hand and makes scratching motions with her fingers.

"They got torn up?" But the girl seems to be done answering Yang's questions. She grabs the hangars and the clothes and begins taking her old clothes (my _old clothes_ , Yang corrects herself) off right then and there. "Hey!" Yang says, trying not to blush. "You're not getting undressed in my baby sister's room!"

The pink-haired girl looks slyly over her shoulder, her thumbs already in the waistband of the pants she's wearing.

Yang does blush at that. "Why not? It... It just doesn't feel right!" She grabs the other girl by the wrist. "You're gonna change in the bathroom." Yang says. But the girl refuses to budge until she's grabbed the clothes on their hangars with her free hand. Only then does she condescend to allow Yang to drag her out of Ruby's room.

* * *

Yang is looking down the hall impatiently when the bathroom door opens. "Took you long enough." she says as she turns around. Her next words die in her throat. It isn't the pink-haired girl who's come out of the bathroom. It's Ruby.

"Yang, what is it?" her sister asks. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

"Ruby? I..." Yang's eyes are watering. She rubs them on her sleeve. When she looks up, Ruby is gone. The pink-haired girl is standing there, head tilted on its side.

Yang grabs her by the front of her borrowed shirt. "Don't you ever-" She swallows hard. "- _ever_ do that again."

The pink-haired girl bats Yang's hand away, her face the picture of bewildered innocence.

"But if...if that wasn't you..." Yang's eyes widen. Ironwood's words come back to her in a rush. _When you're out on the battlefield, your judgment can become clouded in an instant. Sometimes you see things that simply aren't there. Even after the fight is past..._

She sinks to her knees. The pink-haired girl cocks her head again.


	11. Chapter 11

"Blake, what's wrong?" Her mother's cool hand rests on her forehead. "Oh honey, you're burning _up_."

"Burning." Blake laughs hollowly.

Not-Yang looms over her, her eyes the same vehement red as Adam's mask. "You knew this was coming." she says. "You wanted it to happen." _Drip. Drip. Drip._

The world slips away from Blake before she has a chance to reply.

* * *

"Kali, what was that?" Loud footsteps, and a quiet gasp. " _Blake_?"

"She has a fever! Get her old room ready, quick!"

She's being moved. Not-Yang keeps pace, the steady dripping sound louder than her own blood pulsing in her ears.

"Where are the blankets?"

"Blankets? She has a fever; she doesn't need blankets!"

"Not even this one? She always used to love it."

"No! Just the sheets!" Her mother's voice is closer now. "Blake? Blake, honey, try and focus. Stay with me. You're safe now." Her mother's hand is clasping hers. "We were so worried about you." she whispers.

Something falls onto Blake's face, something warm and wet. "I'm sorry mom." she breathes. "I'm so sorry. I missed you both so much."

The world slips away again.

* * *

"No, I'm sorry! My husband is not receiving visitors. Our daughter Blake has come. She's not doing well."

"We are sorry to hear this."

"May we inquire as to her health?"

"I just told you. She's not doing well. She's delirious and running a fever. My husband is with her now. Any other business will have to wait."

"We understand. Please deliver our best wishes to her, and to your husband of course."

"Would it be...ill-advised if we informed Ilia of your daughter's return?"

"I'd prefer to wait and see what she has to say on the matter."

"A very wise decision. Good day, Mrs Belladonna."

* * *

Everything is white, and it hurts. "Where...am I?"

"The afterlife. Like it?"

"I'm not dead."

"Are you sure?" _Drip. Drip. Drip._

"Yang?"

"How many other people do you know with a missing right arm and an abandonment complex the size of Amity Colosseum?"

"...what?"

"My mom, remember?" Yang shakes her head. "Stupid question. Of course you do. You probably remember everything I ever said to you."

"No, hold on, go back. Abandonment...complex?"

Yang sighs. "You really are just another dumb Faunus, aren't you? Wait, I take that back. What was the first thing I said to you when we first met?"

Blake has to think for a moment. "'Yeah, this girl's a lost cause.'"

Yang lets out a cruel bark of amusement. "That is what you'd focus on, isn't it? But yeah. Lost cause." She turns to glare at Blake, eyes the same red as before. "How many times have you had happiness, real happiness, in front of you, and just thrown it all away? You want to be miserable, admit it."

"Yang-" She has no other words.

"Here in Menagerie, with your parents? At Beacon, with us? With _me_?" Yang pushes her hard. Blake falls to the floor, if there even is a floor. "Say it. Say you deserve to be miserable."

"I ddddeserve it." she sniffs.

"There we go." Yang says in spine-chilling glee. "That's a good start. But I think you can do better." She raises her fist up high.

Blake feels the blow land in her stomach just before she awakens.


	12. Chapter 12

Yang stares at the wall. She thinks she should stop doing this and try to get some sleep, but sleep has not been kind.

She did try though, earlier in the night. The first thing she remembers from it is seeing _her_. She'd almost screamed herself awake before anything had happened. _She_ is the last thing she wants to think about.

Yang wishes there was someone she could talk to, but it's late, late enough that even Sun is bound to be asleep. The pink-haired girl would probably just as soon rip her other arm off as talk to her if Yang tried to wake her. And Taiyang...

Her thoughts stop there. She slips out of bed, puts her feet to the cold wood floor, and opens the bedroom door as quietly as she can. All the other doors are closed. She knew they would be, but it doesn't stop this terrible ache in her heart. Sun is splayed out against the wall across from the guest room, fast asleep. She steps out into the hall, closing the door behind her. Moonlight plays beneath the window, and she wants to be outside. She tiptoes downstairs; past Zwei (who had been sure to milk his injury for everything he could at dinner) in his bed; out the door and across the lawn to the shed. On the sideboard inside there's an old radio, which Yang takes. She doesn't want to be alone with her thoughts tonight. She gazes at the place where she knows Bumblebee is, though it's covered by both a heavy wrap and the ever-present gloom.

Closing the door, she pads back over to the porch. She squints at the radio, the moonlight hardly bright enough to help her differentiate between the buttons along the front. She pushes what she thinks is the power button with her stump and is gratified when the device turns on. She sets it down upon the railing and gazes up at the sky.

When the song begins, Yang thinks it's a train, despite how quiet it is. She's not sure why, especially when she realizes it's a snare drum. Then the second instrument starts to play. It sounds like an electric guitar, but also not. Yang tells herself to stop thinking so deeply about a song she's listening to on a whim at an unholy time of night. Instead she loses herself in the rhythm, tapping along with the snare drum while she stares at the sky. There's a melancholic note to it, she decides, and the piano every once in a while definitely doesn't help. The stars become blurry. She wipes her eyes on the back of her hand. Suddenly the music swells and there are strange wordless vocals and she's _sobbing_ , sobbing like she hasn't in months. She misses her team. The place where they were in her heart hurts so much.

The crying subsides as quickly as it had come. She grabs at the railing to pull herself up; she doesn't remember falling to the ground. She takes the radio back to the shed and stands there in the darkness while the song fades away. When it's over, she turns the radio off, closes the door to the shed, and makes her way back to the room.

* * *

She's up at dawn, although up is a more generous term than she would use. Staring at this wall brings back memories of happier times, memories that right now she can do without. She gets out of bed reluctantly and opens the door.

Sun is right where she'd left him several hours before. As she watches him, he leans too far to one side and falls onto the floor. He doesn't wake up.

 _He probably thought he was on guard duty,_ Yang realizes. _He came here to get away from that stuff, and he just dives right back in like it's nothing._

After a while, he tries to stretch. It doesn't go well, given where he is. He opens his eyes. "Oh, hey." he says. "You're up early."

"Didn't sleep well." she says. Then she asks, "Were you up here all night?"

Sun nods as he gets to his feet. "Wanted to make sure whoever's in the guest room didn't decide to get up and stab you both in your sleep."

"You didn't have to do that." she says.

"Sure I did. Just cause you vouch for her doesn't mean I'm all sold. I mean, who even is she? You said she worked with Torchwick?"

"She tried to kill me. Just before the Breach."

"Wait, she beat _you_? What's she fight like?" Sun sounds enthralled by the concept.

"She's quick, agile. Like, really agile." Yang doesn't tell him how hard she'd pushed herself to overcome what she could remember of the pink-haired girl's style in the weeks after the Breach. "She's way out of your league."

"Aww. You sure? Maybe if we team up-"

She doesn't say anything. He looks up from his stretches. She raises what's left of her right arm.

"Oh yeah. That." He seems put-out. "I could try and train you-"

"No."

"No?"

"I'm not interested in fighting her." Yang says.

"But she beat you. She almost _killed_ you. How can you just let her walk around your home?"

She shrugs. "I've gotten used to it. It's my Semblance, remember?"

"Well I'm gonna beat her for you. No one pushes my friends around and gets away with it."

She stares at the wall. She has no interest in continuing the conversation.

It's his turn to shrug. "Listen, I gotta get back to Beacon. Wanna go for a walk with me before I leave?"

Yang frowns. "You've been here for months, and you stopped asking me that after the first week. What gives?"

He comes a little closer. "I...may have a surprise in store. I want to be here when it shows up."

She sighs. "I don't like surprises Sun."

"This is a good one! I promise!" He looks at her eagerly. "What do you say?"

 _It's not like I have any other plans,_ she thinks. "Fine."

"Yes!" He leaps into the air like a puppy. "We could go into town a ways. We might be able to meet up with them before they get here-"

"Sun." He turns, already halfway to the stairs. "I'm going to leave a note for dad. The last thing he needs right now is to think his other daughter ran out on him without saying anything."

"Oh." Even he looks a little crestfallen at that idea. "Yeah. That...that makes sense."

She walks with him downstairs and scours the living room for a piece of paper and something to write with. Once she finds them, she realizes that was only half the battle. "'Dear-'" She grimaces and starts over. "'Dear...dad-'" She lets out a long low growl. "'Dear...dad...Sun...and...I...'" She throws the pen at the wall. "I can't even write!" she yells.

"It's okay!" Sun says, picking up the pen. "I can write it if you want. Just tell me what you want me to say."

She clenches her fist so hard it starts to shake, but finally hands him the paper. "Just tell him I went out for a walk with you. It's not that kind of walk; be sure and mention that; and we'll be back in like ten minutes."

Sun gets to work.

"So…" she begins. "What kind of surprise is it? Animal, vegetable, mineral?"

"It's a surprise-surprise!" he says.

"Sun, you're terrible at keeping secrets. You told Neptune about _her_ , like three weeks after you found out."

"I told him not to tell anyone! And he didn't!"

"My point still stands." She nudges him with her good arm. "And don't think I haven't noticed you avoiding the question."

He sighs, but smiles slightly at her. "It's a good one. That's all I'll say. Just let me keep it for a little while. Please?"

"Uh huh." She stands there and watches as he finishes writing, hand on her hip.

He holds up the paper for her to inspect. "Whatcha think?"

 _We're out for a walk. Back in 10? P.S. NOT THAT KIND OF WALK! (Yang said to add this.)_

Yang shrugs. "I guess that works."

"Okay! I'll leave it on the kitchen table."

"Why not just leave it on the couch?" she wonders aloud, but Sun is already gone.

He's back in an instant. "Let's go!" She looks suspiciously at him as he closes the front door behind them, but doesn't press him any further. "Why'd you want me to tell your dad it's 'not that kind of walk'?" he asks.

"I don't want him getting the wrong idea about us." she says.

"Oh." She waits for him to ask the inevitable follow-up. "So what's the right idea?"

"Just a girl and a guy who spend time with each other."

Sun considers this. "I like the sound of that." he says.

They walk in silence for a bit. Something about the forest air brings Yang a sense of calm. She doesn't have to feel her thoughts bouncing off the inside of her skull in search of a place to land. The sound of the wind rustling through the trees makes her almost forget how tired she suddenly is. "How long have we been walking?" she says.

"Why, you need to head back?"

"No. I just... Never mind." She doesn't want to admit to weakness in front of Sun of all people, so she keeps going.

They come to a stop in a clearing. "Definitely time to head back." Sun says.

"How do you know that?" Yang asks, breathing hard.

"I've walked these woods a lot the past couple weeks. Or months? Whatever. It's been a while. And I know how long it takes me to get this far." It's only then that he notices Yang's situation. "You don't look so good. You should maybe sit down."

He steps toward her, but she holds him off. "I'm okay." she says. She sits down on a rock. "I just need to...catch my breath."

He looks like he's about to say something, but they both hear sounds in the distance. He turns and cranes his head. "I think that's them! Wait here."

He dashes off into the trees. "Where am I going to go?" she asks dryly. "You'd catch up to me in less than no time if I tried going home." As soon as he's out of side, she clutches at a stitch in her side. _This is more exercise than I've had in weeks...or months, like he said._ From a pain in her side, Yang's thoughts immediately and irritatingly drift to the wound in _her_ side, the woman whose name she refuses to say, that must have healed by now. _She's not a woman_ , the rational part of Yang's mind tries to tell her. _She's the same age you are._

 _Teenager, then. Wait, adult. Wow, am I really an adult now? Anyway. Happy?_

 _You know you're not._

She's preparing her returning salvo when Sun's voice breaks through her concentration. "Hey Yang! Guess who's coming to dinner!"

"Breakfast and lunch first." someone says.

"Yeah, but that's not how the saying goes." Sun retorts.

Yang looks up. "Velvet? Coco?"

Coco looks over her shades. "You look like hell Xiao Long." Then, as Velvet rushes forward to give Yang a hug, Coco whispers sotto voce to the others, "Don't take it personally. She's been through a lot. And besides, it's not like you two talk much anyway."

Yatsuhashi may have grunted.

Velvet lets go and strokes Yang's matted hair. "Coco's right." she says between sniffs. "You do look...not great."

Yang shrugs. "Velvet, are you crying?"

Velvet nods. "I never got a chance to speak to you after the tournament. I saw Ruby, but I don't know if she gave you my message before-"

The tournament. Yang feels like she's going to be sick. "No, she didn't."

"It wasn't anything major." Velvet says. "Just something about you being a nice person, and not deserving all the things people had been saying about you."

"I- I didn't hear any of those-" Before Yang can help it, the question comes rushing out of her. "What were people saying?"

Coco steps in. "It doesn't matter. What's done is done."

Velvet nods eagerly.

"Right..." Yang tries to concentrate. "What are you guys doing here anyway? Sun said something about you still trying to clear out Beacon."

"Changing of the guard. We're coming here to relax while Sun has to do his job for once."

"Hey!" Sun protests. "Glynda said we were free to leave whenever we want, that no one would hold it against us."

"But it'd be nice if you gave us more than a days' notice." Yatsuhashi says.

Sun babbles on. Coco quickly has enough and squeezes his mouth shut. "Get going kid." she says quietly. "Your team's waiting."

Sun steps back. "R-right..." He looks over at Yang. "See you later Yang?"

"Bye Sun." Yang manages to say. She'd forgotten how intimidating Coco Adel could be.

Sun nods, waves at the members of Team CFVY, and takes off at a jog.

Velvet waves back, then turns to Yang. "So! Which way's the house?"

Yang looks at the forest. "That way." she says after a moment's thought. She takes a step forward and stumbles.

"You all right?" Coco says.

"I'm...not used to walking this much." she says, her face red.

"Yatsu." Coco says. "You think you can carry Xiao Long home?" Yatsuhashi is about to oblige, when Coco stops him. "On second thought..." She comes up next to Yang and crouches beside her. "How about I do it?"

Yang turns even redder. "What?"

"I was just remembering how you and Belladonna always looked at each other. Figured I might be more your type."

"Coco!" Velvet chides her leader. "You're gonna give her a heart attack!"

"Okay, forget I said anything. Yatsu." Yatsuhashi crouches down on Yang's other side. "Pick a team Xiao Long."

Yang curls up into a ball to cover her face.

"She could be into both." Fox says.

Everyone except Yang looks at him. "That is true. I didn't want to complicate matters." Coco says apologetically. "All right, we'll take turns."

Velvet giggles. "What would her father think?"

"Just leave me here to die." Yang mutters.


	13. Chapter 13

Blake opens her eyes, a slow gradual process like the sun coming up. "Hey mom." she croaks. She doesn't feel as hot as the sun any more, which she guesses is a good thing.

Her mother pulls her up off the bed and into her arms. "We've been worried sick." she whispers tearfully.

Blake wants to hug her back. Her body has other ideas. It doesn't let her. "I'm sorry." she says hoarsely, and she is. Painfully so. "How long was I out?"

"Oh, goodness knows." Kali laughs. She lets go, and her daughter falls back onto the bed. Blake tries to sit up, and gasps, putting a hand to her side.

Kali's face falls. "We saw the scar when we were undressing you." Blake looks away. "That's a new one, isn't it?" Blake nods. Kali puts a hand on Blake's cheek. "I know you're feeling a little overwhelmed right now. And you're still coming out of the fever." She pulls Blake close to her again. "But your father and I will always be here for you Blake. When you're ready to talk, we're ready to listen."

Blake's eyes flood with tears. "I love you mom." she whimpers.

"I love you too sweetheart." Kali murmurs. She hugs her daughter harder, but not too much harder.

* * *

Later, she helps her daughter into the kitchen. "Your father's upstairs." she says as Blake struggles to sit down. "We tried to drop everything until you were better, but-"

Blake nods. "Running Menagerie is hard work." she groans.

Kali nods as well. "Wait right there. I'll get the kettle going."

Blake tries for a while to remain sitting up, but her body is so used to lying down that eventually she can't resist it any longer. She stares dumbly up at the ceiling, her mind a blessed blank.

"Honey?" Kali says.

Before her mother has time to worry, Blake holds up a hand with the thumb pointed skyward. "I'm okay." she croaks. Without realizing why, she adds, "Not okay okay, but-"

"I know." Kali says. She looms into Blake's peripheral vision, holding a tray. "I hope you still like it the same way. Two sugars-"

"Actually, uh..." Kali looks at Blake. "...never mind. Two sugars-"

"-lots of milk." Kali finishes in unison with her. They both laugh. "Some things never change."

Blake sits up with another groan and reaches for the kettle.

"Let me do it." Kali says. Blake relents. Her hands are still far too shaky to pour. When her cup is full, she accepts it with thanks and immediately takes a sip. Her eyes go wide.

"Careful!" her mother says with a gentle laugh. "Looks like you've forgotten how hot we like it here in Menagerie."

"The tea at Beacon was terrible compared to this. Lukewarm and bitter." Blake says. _Like me._ She gingerly takes another sip, and grimaces. "Maybe a little more milk..."

Kali passes it to her. "You know, sometimes I think you'd be just as fond of this if you hadn't taken after me." she muses.

Blake smiles as she adds the extra milk. "I get my good looks, and my ears, from you, and my temper from dad."

There's a long comfortable silence while Blake drinks her tea and Kali watches. Blake can tell, even after all this time, that Kali is dying to ask her questions. She's unspeakably grateful that her mother is able to resist the temptation. She finishes her cup, and then another without sugar in it, before Kali finally gives in. "How have you been Blake?" she asks.

Blake's hand starts shaking again. _I've been a traitor._ "I've been okay," she lies. Then, a bit more truth. "But I've also been better."

Kali frowns doubtfully. "Your father spoke to the captain of the ship you came in on. He said you barely slept a wink; that you were always looking over your shoulder as if you were afraid of seeing someone."

"Two someones." Blake says before she can help herself. "I'm not ready to talk about it."

"I understand." Kali says. She gets to her feet and begins to clear the table. "I'm sure your father would love to see you. If you wait just a minute I can help you up the stairs."

"It's fine. I need the exercise." Blake says. "You go ahead and wash up."

"Are you sure?"

Blake nods. "I'm sure." She steps forward to give her mother a kiss on the forehead. "Love you mom."

Kali manages to peck Blake on the cheek before she leaves the room. "Love you too dear."

* * *

Blake takes her time for once on the stairs. Every step is a struggle. Ghira hears her long before she reaches the top. The door to his study opens. "Blake!" He looms as large as ever, though perhaps a little grayer around the temples. _Has it really been that long?_

"Hi dad." she mutters. As usual, he has no hesitation about scooping his daughter up in his arms and pulling her close. "Ow." she says, her eyes widening again, as he hugs her for all he's worth.

"Oh my girl..." he says. "We both missed you so much."

"I missed you too dad." she squeaks. "But- you're kind of-" Did her ribs just creak? "-squishing... me..."

Moments before total collapse, he loosens his grip. "Uh, sorry." he says. He sets her down. "Sometimes I still don't know my own strength."

She gasps for breath for what feels like ages. "It's okay." she laughs, and then winces. "Your arms are what keep Menagerie together after all."

"Easier said than done," he grumbles, but there's a twinkle in his eye. "Come in, come in."

Blake allows herself to be swept along by her father and his stream of conversation. "Those pajamas don't look like they fit you any more. We'll go into town later to see about getting you fitted for some new ones, depending on how long you'll be staying, of course." She sits down on the couch, watching him fondly. "I thought I smelled tea earlier. Did your mother make you some?" he asks.

"Yes dad." she says. "It was wonderful."

"Good, good." He looks up as the door opens again. "Kali! I was just telling Blake we might have to get her fitted for new pajamas."

"I noticed." Kali sits down on Blake's other side. "Our little girl's grown up. As well as out."

Blake turns an incredible crimson. "Mom!"

"What? It's true, isn't it?" Kali says innocently.

Blake buries her face in her hands as Ghira laughs.


	14. Chapter 14

"How've you been?" Velvet asks.

Yang shrugs. "I've been okay."

"Lying." Fox announces. He's carrying Coco's pack in addition to his own.

Yang turns to look at him. "W- What?"

"You're lying." Fox says. "I can tell it from your voice."

"No you can't!" Yang says. Then, to Velvet, "Can he?"

Velvet opens her mouth, but Fox cuts her off. "It's like this. Coco said you looked like crap, then you said you're not used to walking. The Yang Xiao Long I know would walk for days without complaining." Yang opens her mouth now, but Fox cuts her off as well. "Not that you were complaining." he hastens to add. "Poor choice of words on my part. I should have said 'without mentioning it at all'. Is that better?"

"I'm not that Yang any more." Yang says quietly.

"First off, I didn't say 'crap'. I said 'hell'. We're off-campus; you're allowed to swear." Coco says. Fox chuckles. "Second, that may be the most I've ever heard you say. You feeling all right?"

"Yes." Fox says.

"That's more like it." Coco says. "And third. Yang, me and you are gonna have a talk later."

Yang's stomach lurches. "Couldn't we have it now?"

"Nope. Cause here we are." Yang looks over Coco's shoulder. She's right. "Unless there's another cabin in the woods Sun forgot to tell us about."

"I wouldn't put it past him." Yatsuhashi says.

Coco sets Yang down gently. Yang tries hard not to let her legs tremble as they touch the ground, but it's no use. Velvet hurries over and offers a shoulder for her to lean on. "Thanks." Yang mumbles.

Velvet smiles and nods as Coco knocks boldly on the front door. Zwei barks from inside. When the door opens, Coco says, "We rescued your daughter from a roguish rapscallion in the forest. We brought her back to you, and humbly ask for a place to stay in return."

"Also food would be nice." Velvet adds. She carefully lets go of Yang and crouches down to say hello to Zwei.

Taiyang hardly bats an eye. "A roguish rapscallion, huh? Sun did say you'd be coming."

"He didn't tell me..." Yang says.

"He thought it might cheer you up." Taiyang says by way of explanation. "Anyway, come on in. I hope you brought some sleeping bags in those packs; we only have the one spare room, and it's been taken."

"Taken?" Coco stops by the couch. "By who?"

"Good question." Taiyang says. "It was kind of spur-of-the-moment."

Coco nods. Then suddenly, she straightens up. "Where are my manners?" she says. "Coco Adel. Guy with the red hair is Fox Alistair. Big guy's Yatsuhashi Daichi. And the little one is Velvet Scarlatina."

"Coco!" Velvet protests. "I wish you wouldn't call me that!"

"I could call you cutie, but you told me not to call you that either. Something about it being a Faunus thing? Honestly, I'm running out of nicknames."

As the two teammates argue, Taiyang looks at Yang. "Friends from school I take it?"

Yang nods. "Well, mostly Velvet. She got bullied really badly in our first semester, so I tried to keep an eye out for her ever since."

Taiyang holds out a fist. "That's my girl." he says approvingly. Yang bumps it with her own.

Soon, however, Coco looks over at her. "Xiao Long? Whenever you're ready."

Yang blinks. "What? Oh! That..." She looks up at her father. "I'll be right back. Coco wanted to have a talk."

"What kind of talk?" Taiyang asks. She's about to answer him when he laughs. "You know, like the walk which wasn't that kind of walk? I'm just kidding, Yang. Whatever it is, it's your business as long as you want it to be."

"Thanks dad." She stands on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, then hurries over to Coco. "We can talk in my room if you want."

"Wherever, whenever." Coco says, holding up a hand airily.

If it was entirely up to Yang, she'd prefer to put it off as long as possible. But Coco's a good person, and Yang doesn't know how long she and her team will be staying. She gives Zwei a quick tummy rub and leads Coco up the stairs.

The door to the guest room is still closed. Yang eyes it thoughtfully before closing the door to her room. "What did you want to say?" she asks.

Away from her team, Coco looks different. She's not holding herself like a fashion model. She looks human. "What did I want to say?" Coco asks. She laughs a little. "Um, I'm sorry, I guess."

"Sorry? For what?"

"Everything that happened to you." Coco says. She takes off her glasses, and that's when Yang gets worried. "Velvet's right, you didn't deserve any of it. Your arm, your team..." She laughs again. "And Blake..." She looks up. There are actual tears in Coco Adel's eyes. "I'm not going to pretend I know what that's like. But Velvet took a bad hit when Beacon was falling. She's better now, but I...I keep having dreams about...what if she didn't wake up? I was the one who told her to fight those Paladins, and..."

Yang hugs Coco reflexively. Not that long ago she would have been overwhelmed by Coco's pseudo-sultry persona, but for once that's far from her mind. "Velvet's fine, Coco." she whispers. "Your team is fine. You made the right call."

"But you weren't there. You didn't have to hear that sound when she got hit-"

Yang pulls back, holding Coco at arm's length. "Velvet's not the type to hold it against you. And you shouldn't be either. Blame whoever corrupted the robots, not yourself."

Coco sniffs. "We don't even know who they are. But...you're right." She puts a hand on Yang's left shoulder. "Thank you Yang. You always know what to say."

It's Yang's turn to laugh. "Not to me." she says harshly. "I've been home for, what, months now? And I just keep going in circles."

"You see, that? That's what I meant when I said we needed to have a talk." Coco says, sounding more like her normal self. "That's not like you Yang."

Yang sighs. "Coco, I don't mean to be rude, but do you _know_ me? When was the last time we hung out, did 'girl things'? Or any kind of things? I have so much in my head, and- I used to be good at keeping it under wraps, but now..." She looks at the stump of her arm.

To her credit, Coco looks somewhat abashed. "I'm sorry." she says. "I like to think of myself as a people person, but you...you must have been _really_ good at keeping it under wraps." She moves her hand to Yang's and squeezes gently. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." Yang says. "I just want to be alone."

"But you've _been_ alone." Coco says. "Yeah, Sun's here off and on, but he's not exactly a good person to talk to." Yang doesn't budge. Coco sighs. "Okay. It's up to you. Remember what I said, though: wherever, whenever." She puts on her glasses and asks, "Which one's the door to the bathroom?"

"Second one on the right." Yang says.

"Thanks." Coco says. She sounds like she means it. "Gotta make sure my makeup's okay. Don't get up; I'll see myself out."

Yang stares at the wall.

* * *

"You should have talked to her."

Yang looks up. "What?" That voice is impossible.

 _She_ is sitting by the window, curled up against the glass, arms around her knees. "You can't keep going like this."

Yang has to fight to think her name, let alone say it out loud. "Blake?"

Blake looks at her. "Not exactly." she says. She gets up and comes over to sit on the edge of the bed. "Look at you. You're running, Yang, just like I did."

"I'm not running." Yang says. "I can barely even walk."

Blake laughs, that rich sound that sends shivers down Yang's spine. "Sweetheart, you're hallucinating. Your own brain has decided you're more likely to listen to me than you are to it."

Yang tries to look away, but she can't take her eyes off Blake for an instant, even if it is just a fake. "Now I know you're not the real thing. Blake never used words like that."

"She wanted to." Blake says. "You know she did. And you know why she couldn't."

" _Adam_." The word turns to ashes in her mouth. She sees that mask, just for a moment, and she starts to shiver.

"Shh." The imaginary Blake strokes her cheek. It feels so real... "He can't hurt you right now. But you can."

Yang reaches for her hand. "What do you mean?" But she blinks, and Blake is gone.

Her lip trembles. _Even after all this time, I still... I still..._

The door opens. The pink-haired girl stands there. "What?" Yang chokes out.

The girl makes the universal symbol for jabbering with one hand and points at Yang with the other.

"Yes, I know! I was talking to myself, all right? Why do you care?"

The pink-haired girl shrugs flippantly. She points with her thumb towards the stairs and tilts her head to the side.

"They're- They're just some friends. From school. The same one you and your crew worked so hard to destroy."

The pink-haired girl shakes her head angrily. She puts two fingers close to her head and lowers them as if that's supposed to mean something.

Yang makes a fist under the sheets. "Listen, you. I'm really not in the mood to try and figure out what you're saying, so could you please just _get out of my room_?"

The pink-haired girl pouts prettily, but closes the door. A little while later, something slides under it. Yang tries to ignore it. She tries her breathing exercises, but the very thought of that thing being there makes it feel like something's burning inside her brain. Finally she can't take any more. She gets out of bed and makes her way over to the door to pick it up. It's a note, handwritten in a painfully cutesy manner.

 _I have a name_ , it says. _Neo. Neopolitan. If you laugh at it, I will hurt you._

 _Nice to meet you. 3_

Yang crumples it up and hurls it at the trash basket. She's too upset even to notice that she made it in on her first try.

* * *

As she's going down the stairs, Yang is almost bowled over by a flustered Neo going the other way. She has her hands clamped firmly over her ears, and her eyes are wild. Yang doesn't even look after her. She knows something's wrong with herself too. There's a buzzing in her ears, and everything seems to be happening in slow motion. She sees Zwei watching Yatsuhashi and Yatsuhashi watching Zwei with an odd look on his face. It takes her a while to realize that he's smiling. Coco, Velvet and Fox are on the couch, Coco watching TV, Fox not seeming to do much of anything, while Velvet writes something down on the table. Taiyang reads the mail in a corner. Somewhere there's music playing, a rock song that only allows the words 'breakdown, breakdown' to be discerned. It has a pulsing beat to it, the kind she might have liked on another day. She latches onto the beat, draws it inside her along with a deep breath.

And she screams.


	15. Chapter 15

"Dad?" Blake says at last. Ghira looks over to her. "I'm so sorry."

"For what?" Ghira looks genuinely puzzled.

"You were right. About the White Fang. About everything. I called you cowards, but you were right-" Blake begins to cry. She's promptly hugged from both sides by her parents.

"We only ever wanted the best for you." Kali says, causing Blake to cry even harder. "And if that wasn't with us, we hoped you would find it for yourself somewhere out there."

 _I did,_ she almost says. But that wouldn't have been fair for them, and they'd want to know where and with whom. Blake keeps her eyes shut tight. There's no telling what (or who) she would see if she opens them. So she cries for what must be an hour or more. Her parents hold her, patient and loving, until the tears and the shaking subside.

"Are you ready to tell us what happened?" Kali asks.

Blake shakes her head.

"All right." Kali pulls Blake close again. "How about we go into town in a little while, get you some new clothes? I'm afraid I had to throw out your old ones; they were falling apart."

 _That's fitting_ , Blake thinks. "What am I going to wear in the meantime?" she says out loud.

"Your pajamas will be just fine. Menagerie's not very formal, especially these days. Your father tells me he's seen several young men wearing nothing at all..." Kali nudges Blake.

Blake gulps. "That's- That's not what I'm after."

"I know honey. I'm just teasing." Kali stands up and puts a hand on Blake's cheek. "Let me know when you're up for it, okay?"

Blake clasps her mother's hand in one of her own. "Okay mom."

Kali smiles at her and Ghira one more time before she leaves the room.

"Do you want me to come along?" Ghira asks. "I think I can manage to leave these papers alone for a little while longer if-"

"We'll be fine dad. You get back to your work." Blake says.

"Good, good. Not that I didn't _want_ to come," he hastens to add. "But it's like your mother says, you really have grown...up and, uh, out..."

Blake giggles even as a faint pink colors her cheeks. "Dad..."

"Don't you 'dad' me young lady!" he growls. Before she can react, he seizes her by the waist and begins to tickle her.

She squeals in delight.

* * *

"How have you been mom?" Blake asks awkwardly as they make their way to the tailor's shop.

"Oh, you know..." Kali shrugs. "I can't really complain. I mean, yes, Menagerie is still a cauldron waiting to explode, but it does feel like we're making progress in reducing some of the tension here. I can't vouch for anything outside the island of course; since the CCT went down, it's been even harder to get word of what the White Fang is doing. We've had to rely on the Albains to-"

Her mother's words fade into the background. Against her will Blake is returning to Beacon. _Not again..._

 _She was grateful for the masks her opponents wore. How many of them were old friends, their voices and shouts of pain, of anger, or triumph muted by the cacophony of battle? Even days later, her ears still rang._

 _She found the lieutenant with the chainsaw who had been ready to kill Weiss on that train. "Fighting alongside Grimm now?" she shouted. "Is this where your ideals have taken you?"_

 _"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," he said. "And the enemy of my friend..." He revved the chainsaw menacingly._

 _Weiss sent him flying with a Glyph at his feet and a purple-and-black shot from Myrtenaster to the Glyph. "If you're going to fight, then fight. If you're going to talk, then talk." she said._

 _Blake gave her a half-hearted smile. "Pot meets the kettle?" she quipped._

 _"Hardly." Weiss gestured around them. There was no conscious figure, not a White Fang grunt nor a solitary Grimm, in range, though Blake could still see them in the distance thanks to her Faunus heritage._

 _"Did you do all that?" Blake breathed._

 _Weiss finally returned her smile. "_ We _did." she said._

"Blake?" Her mother is shaking her gently, her voice tense with concern.

Blake blinks. "S-sorry." she stammers. "It was a flashback."

"Flashback of what?" Kali lets go of her. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay." Blake reaches out and puts a shaking hand on her mother's shoulder, then pulls her close into a tight embrace. "Really. I'll try not to let it happen again." She lets go, and walks in the direction she thinks they'd been heading before her flashback, unaware of the look her mother gives her.


	16. Chapter 16

Everything stops, except for the TV and the music. They're staring but she doesn't care. She takes another breath and screams.

Zwei throws back his head and howls.

Velvet is the first to move. She pushes her chair back so fast it tips over and runs to Yang.

The sudden movement snaps Coco out of her shock. "Wait!" she says. Velvet skids to a halt. Coco gets up. "She might need her space." She walks carefully to about five feet away from Yang. "Xiao L- Yang?" she corrects herself. Yang is still screaming. "We're right here for you." Yang screams again. "When you're ready, just...just tell us what you want."

"I want my team!" Yang screams.

Coco looks around. Everyone's here, except for Zwei, who's still howling in a corner.

"I want my friends back!" Yang screams hoarsely. Coco catches a glimpse of red eyes before Yang falls to her knees. "I want Bbbbb- Bbbblllll-" She can't seem to bring herself to say the name, and the mere act of trying is enough to finally bring her to tears.

Taiyang is the first to crack. He steps forward, kneels down and hugs his daughter as hard as he can. Velvet is next, then Yatsuhashi and Fox, the former helping the latter figure out where to put his arms. Zwei has stopped howling and works his way into the veritable dog-pile to find Yang. Coco makes sure the music and TV are turned off before she joins them. They stay like that for a good long while, until the sound of Yang's crying proves too much for someone.

"Oh grow up!" an unexpected voice says. Coco turns her head, being the only one who can at the moment. Roman Torchwick is there at the front door. At least he appears to be. "We've all lost people important to us. And you didn't even LOSE yours, they went away! So get up and find them!"

Having said his piece, he disappears into thin air. Coco looks up. Neo glares down at them from the landing before she flounces back upstairs. They hear the door to the guest room slam shut. "Moving on." Coco says in the uncomfortable quiet.

"Don't listen to her Yang." Velvet whispers. "She doesn't get it."

"She's right though." Yang says. She tries to say something more, but ends up coughing painfully.

"I'll get some water." Coco says, disengaging herself from the tangle of limbs. "You guys work on getting her to lay down."

When she returns, Yang is on the couch. The whole gang is by her side, except for Zwei who's resting on her chest. Coco sidles through the crowd without speaking. She offers Yang a glass of water, which she gratefully accepts. She takes a small sip before trying to set it down on the table. Velvet does it for her. "How are you feeling Yang?" he asks.

She grimaces and points to her throat.

"Perhaps we should continue this another time." Fox says.

"My daughter came downstairs and started screaming at the top of her lungs." Taiyang says. "I would very much like to know why... but if she's not up for telling us, then we'll wait." He puts a hand on Yang's shoulder. "Let me know if you need something, okay?"

She reaches up and touches his hand with hers, smiling before she returns to petting Zwei.

"Let any of us know." Yatsuhashi says. Coco looks at him in surprise. He looks back at her. "We have things to do." he reminds her.

"Oh, right. Training." Coco turns apologetically to Yang. "Sorry Xiao Long. You're welcome to join in whenever you're ready." She, Yatsuhashi and Fox head for the door, Coco pausing on her way out. "Velvet?"

Velvet looks up. "Is...is it all right if I stay with Yang?" she says.

Coco's face softens for a moment. "Sure." she says. "Just don't expect me to go easy on you next time."

"Wouldn't dream of it!" Velvet says.

Coco nods approvingly and closes the door.

* * *

Yang thinks she must've fallen asleep at some point. The next thing she remembers, the light has changed, Zwei is no longer on her chest, and Velvet is shifting from side to side on the table. "Sorry!" she whispers when she notices Yang looking at her. "Did I wake you?"

Yang shakes her head. "What are you doing?" she asks thickly.

"My..." She blushes. "My backside hurts. Zwei's in the chair, I didn't want to move him, and this is the only place I could sit."

"Oh." Yang tries to scoot over. "You can sit here if you want. I should get up anyway, or I'm gonna fall between the cushions."

"It doesn't look like there's a lot of room..." Velvet mutters. "Maybe- Oh forget it."

"What?"

"No, it's- It's inappropriate."

Yang props herself up on her arm. "Velvet?"

"I was thinking... You seem like you haven't had a lot of...contact the past few months, and I was wondering if...if I could...snuggle with you..."

"Snuggle?" Yang starts to blush, but then she thinks about it. Velvet is a friend. A good friend. Not the kind of friend that Blake turned out to be, the friends-with-benefits kind, just a friend. And the more she thinks about it, the more she could use a friend right now. "Sure."

Velvet's jaw opens. "What?"

"Come on over." Yang says. "I can assure you my intentions are at least fifty percent honorable." She raises the stump of her right arm. "Get it? Cause I only have one arm, so I can't-"

Velvet giggles. Then she laughs. "Oh Yang!" she says, and practically pounces onto the couch. "You're incorrigible!"

Yang chuckles hoarsely. "I'm glad some things haven't changed." Then she sobers. "For real though, I'm not gonna-"

Velvet shakes her head. "I know you won't." she says.

"Okay." Yang fidgets, trying to get comfortable.

Velvet, on the other hand, settles in almost immediately. "You're so nice and warm!" she coos.

"You feel really nice too." Yang says with a sigh.

Velvet looks up. "Is something wrong?"

Yang looks down at her. "No. Why?"

"People with nothing wrong don't tend to come downstairs and scream repeatedly." Velvet says shyly.

"That was just..." Yang struggles to find the words. "I needed to blow off steam."

Velvet nods, clearly not buying it. "You know how people always say 'where there's smoke, there's fire'? Well, where there's steam, there's pressure."

Yang looks at the wall. "Can we not talk about this right now?"

"When _are_ we gonna talk about it?" Velvet says.

Yang refuses to meet her eyes.

"Velvet's got a point." Coco says. Yang looks up. She and the other two members of CFVY are standing behind the couch. Fox's hand is still on the doorknob. "It took me until just a couple minutes ago to realize how well you deflected when we were upstairs talking."

"How long have you been standing there?" Yang asks, suddenly very conscious of the way this might look to Velvet's teammates.

"Not long." Coco says. "If you're worried about-" She gestures between the two of them, Velvet and Yang. "-don't. I trust her. I trust you."

Fox closes the front door. "She's doing it again Coco."

Coco scowls. "You're right."

"What?" Suddenly Yang is afraid. She pushes Velvet away gently and struggles to sit up. "What's going on?"

"Yatsu, go get Taiyang. He might want to hear this."

Yatsuhashi nods.

"No!" Yang gets to her feet, intent on stopping him, but her sudden change in posture makes her heart pound giddily. She puts her hand to her chest and tries to reach out for something to help keep her balance, but she doesn't have that hand any more. Only Velvet's quick intervention saves her from hitting her head on the table. "Don't- don't bring him into this. Please."

"He's your dad." Coco says coolly. "He's going to be involved one way or another."

"You don't know that! He wasn't involved when I took Ruby into the forest!"

Coco, Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi all look at her. _Probably not something I should've shared._ "When...was this?" Velvet asks.

"It- It was a long time ago. It doesn't matter. Just-" Yang looks pleadingly at Yatsuhashi. "Don't... Please."

Yatsuhashi glances at Coco. Coco thinks about it, then she sighs. "Fine." she says, and Yang breathes a sigh of relief. "But we're having this talk." she adds.

"What happened to 'wherever, whenever'?" Yang asks. Her shoulders slump.

"That's what we're doing. It just so happens that it's right here, right now."

Velvet steers Yang back to the couch. Coco shoos Zwei off the chair, which he relinquishes with a whine, and sits down in it herself. Yatsuhashi and Fox stand on either side of her.

"Now then." Coco says. "What shall we talk about?"


	17. Chapter 17

"How'd it go?" Ghira asks them at the door.

"They didn't have anything in Blake's size, so we're going back in a couple days." Kali says.

"Ah. That's a pity." Ghira looks to Blake. "I take it that means you'll be staying?"

Blake nods. "Do you greet everyone who comes to the door?" she asks curiously.

Ghira clears his throat. "I was...taking a break from work, and I saw you coming up the path."

Kali laughs. "He means he was keeping an eye out for us on the porch. I'm surprised you didn't see him yourself; I'm not getting any younger, but he certainly stood out to me."

Blake shrugs. "I guess I was busy thinking." Before either of her parents have a chance to ask what she might have been thinking about, Blake says, "Is it all right if I go back to my room?"

"Of course!" Ghira says. "You must be exhausted."

"...yeah." Blake says.

As she's about to leave, Kali says, "Let me know if you need anything! I don't remember what books we've gotten since you left, but you're welcome to any of them!"

"Thanks mom. Thanks dad." Blake says.

Alone in her room, she collapses onto her bed and buries her head in the sheets to drown out the voices.

"As I was saying," Not-Weiss resumes. "That tailor doesn't come cheap. I'm sure you saw the prices. Your parents aren't made of money, you know."

"Hey, leave her alone!" Not-Ruby says. "She's earned the right to some new clothes."

"She has?" Not-Yang says dryly. "What'd she do again? Oh right, she ran away."

The three hateful figments continue to argue as Blake clamps a pillow over her cat-ears. She feels like the real Ruby would: stressed out by and afraid of all the noise. But Blake doesn't even have the luxury of going to another room. They'd be right there alongside her every step of the way, the way she never was for her real team.

The knocker sounds. "I'll get it!" Blake yells loudly. Not loud enough.

As she opens the door, she can see her three not-team-mates on either side of her, almost before she sees what's right in front. "Ilia?"

"It's been a long time Blake." she says. "Where have you been?"

"I-" Blake swallows. "I was at Beacon. Learning to be a Huntress."

"Beacon, huh? How many Faunus were there?"

Blake shrugs. "I don't know. I could name a few, but...most of them were good at hiding."

"They shouldn't have to." Ilia says immediately, her skin flaring to red. Then it returns to normal. "Sorry. Old habits." she apologizes.

"It's okay. I know the feeling."

They look at each other for a long moment. The figments of Blake's mind are strangely silent.

"Why are you here?" Blake asks.

"I could ask you the same thing." Ilia says. "The war's still going on."

Blake shakes her head. "No. The real war's just starting."

"The _real_ war?" Ilia takes a step forward. "What are you talking about? Our brethren are being tortured out there. They're _dying_ out there. How much more real do you need?"

"You sound just like him." Blake draws herself up. "You need to go."

"Fine." Ilia almost spits. She turns on her heel and storms off.

Blake watches her go.

Not-Yang whistles. "Who was that?"

"You don't have to ask." Not-Weiss says. "You're in her head too."

"Don't remind me." Blake groans as she closes the door.

* * *

Dinner is to die for. Blake devours three fish all by herself, her parents looking on in astonishment. "Is she...going through another growth spurt?" Ghira asks his wife.

"It's probably just from the fever." Kali tells him.

Blake sits back with a groan. "That was the best." she sighs.

"I'm glad you liked it." Kali says. Blake frowns at the smile her mother is trying and failing to hide. "Eat up!" She sets another platter full of fish down on the table.

"Do _not_ tempt me," Blake jokes. Kali pretends to slip one onto Blake's plate. "Mom!"

"Heartwarming family reunion." Blake goes rigid with fright. "Mind if I join you?"

Blake stands up. Her parents don't seem to have noticed the newcomer. "Mom? Dad?" She points at him. He's sitting down in the empty space provided by a square table. "You see him too right?"

"See what honey?" Ghira asks with a frown.

Blake takes a deep breath. "Say that again."

"What...?"

"Say it again. Please."

"Blake." She opens her eyes. "There's nothing there."

She's looking right at him, at where his eyes would be if not for his mask. "Okay." she says.

"Jumping at shadows, my darling?" he says. "Not surprising. You always were weak-minded, as well as weak."

"Sh- Shut up." she stammers.

"Shut up?" His lips curl in a smile. "I'm not even talking. It's all you Blake. It's all you."

She backs away from the table, hands raised, hair standing on end. "He's right there." she says over and over again. "I can't stop him."

"Who is?" Ghira asks. "Who do you see?"

" _Adam_."


	18. Chapter 18

Yang doesn't say anything. Everyone's looking at her. She wishes they would stop. But she doesn't say anything.

"Yang?" Velvet says. She strokes her hand. "It's okay. We're here to help you."

Yang's lips move slightly. No one is sure if it's a smile or not.

Coco rests her chin on her hand. "We've got all day Yang." she says.

Yang still doesn't say anything.

"Is it the muscle?" Coco gestures to Yatsuhashi and Fox. "Would you feel better if this was just a girl-talk?"

Yang shrugs.

"What are you afraid of?" Velvet asks.

 _Everything,_ Yang wants to say.

Coco sighs. "Okay. I'm just gonna get this started." She purses her lips. "When you were crying, you said something like 'she's right' after that adorable little hellspawn went on her rant. What did you mean by that?"

"I could have gone after them months ago." Yang mutters, so quietly that everyone has to lean in to hear her. "But I didn't. Blake doesn't want me any more, that's pretty obvious, and... I couldn't bear the thought of actually hearing her say it."

No one seems to have any idea what to say. Yang takes an awful satisfaction in that. Then Velvet says, "You lost your arm. You were out cold for weeks. You had every right to take it easy."

"Yeah, well, weeks turned into months. And here I am." She waves the stump of her right arm.

"What you went through would've devastated anyone." Coco says. "Including most adults."

"But it didn't happen to an adult; it happened to _me_!" Yang says. "And I'm supposed to be the strong one! What...what chance do any of them have?" she adds, a cold hand gripping her insides.

"What does being strong mean?" Fox asks.

Yang blinks. "It- It means protecting people who can't protect themselves; it means...you get knocked down, and you get back up-"

"Precisely. You get back up. It doesn't mean you have to be up right away, just that you get up at some point."

Yang shakes her head. She looks back down at the rug. "You don't understand."

"So help us understand." Coco says.

Yang thinks about it for a long moment. Then she says, "I saw Blake earlier." She can feel their attention sharpen, probing her for signs of weakness, insanity. "I know it wasn't her. She even said it was a hallucination." Are they relenting? She can't tell. "She...she said I was running. But I'm not, I'm standing still. Everyone else is running. Ruby's running. Blake's running. Weiss is..." She stops. "No. Her father took her, right? She would've stayed."

"You know we can't answer that." Velvet says gently. "What do you think she meant?"

"It means you're not looking back." Yang looks up. Blake is leaning against the window on the far wall. "So many things happened. Your arm, the tournament...me. And you haven't come to terms with any of it."

"I don't know." Yang lies.

Coco turns around to follow Yang's gaze. "What are you looking at?" she asks.

"Nothing." Yang says.

"Stop lying to them!" Blake says. She turns around. The sight of her yellow eyes blazing makes Yang start. "They're trying to help you!"

"They don't get it!" she says.

CFVY exchanges looks.

"And whose fault is that?" Blake asks, coming closer until she is face to face with Yang as she leans in over the couch. "You refuse to tell them anything, and you have the _gall_ to be upset when they can't read your mind!"

"You always used to." Yang murmurs.

"Yang, what's going on?" Coco asks.

Blake relents. "No I didn't." she says. "You opened up to me. Not all the way, but...enough." She smiles. "Remember that time in the lecture hall? You told me about taking Ruby into the forest. Did you tell that to anyone before me?"

"There wasn't anyone before you." Yang says. A tear drips down her chin.

"You know what I mean." Blake reaches out and brushes at the tear.

When Yang reaches up, it's still there. "Why did you leave, Blake?" she whispers.

"I told you why." Blake says. She turns and walks out the closed front door.

"Blake?" Yang reaches out an arm. It's only when it's out in front of her that she realizes it's the wrong one.

When she turns around, everyone is looking at her again. She forces herself to hold back her tears. "This is a lot to think about." she says. "I need some time to myself."

Coco takes a breath, then she nods. "I think we can give you that. If you promise to talk to us again soon."

Yang nods numbly. "I promise." she says at Coco's silent urging by way of one raised eyebrow.

Velvet throws her arms around Yang. She starts to cry. Yang hugs her back as best as she can. "It's okay Velvet." she says, trying to sound more certain than she feels. "It's okay."

* * *

When Neo opens her door, CFVY is waiting for her. She looks around blithely, as if asking if she's supposed to be impressed, betraying nothing of her inner thoughts. Her Semblance is useful like that. "Listen good, kid." Coco says. "I don't know who you are; I don't know why you're here. But if you're not going to treat Yang with the respect she deserves, then you can crawl on back to hell."

Neo rolls her eyes and snaps her fingers. Roman Torchwick appears again. "I'll have you know she invited me." He looks at Neo. "Us." Neo shrugs. "Whatever. I'm not even here. The point is, she invited her. Yang invited her. She didn't say a word about good behavior or 'respect'." They both spread their hands in an additional shrug. "Now, are we done?" She squeezes past Yatsuhashi and flounces away down the corridor.

She makes it seem like she's gone downstairs, then when CFVY follows her, she makes that illusion vanish. Then she walks to Yang's door with 'Roman' in tow. She knocks softly. "Hey kid." she has 'Roman' say. "I know this sounds weird coming from a dead guy, but it's the only way she can really talk, so... listen up I guess."

Silence from inside. Is she getting ready for a fight?

"I don't know what your problem is, but you stuck up for me. You shouldn't have, but you did. Does this mean I owe you? Probably not, and even if I did there's no shame in racking up a debt every now and then." Neo smiles. "What I'm getting at is... I'm a good listener. I can't promise I'll give a damn, but I'll listen if you need me."

Still nothing. Neo puts her ear to the door, then her eye to the keyhole. Yang is sitting on her bed. She doesn't seem to have moved. Neo can't see much more than that. Then she hears Yang say, "Thanks Neo."

Satisfied with herself, Neo straightens up and makes her way to the top of the stairs once again. She doesn't know anything about these four apart from what green hair dark skin girl did to two of them during the tournament, but she wants them on their toes. So she becomes both silent and invisible until she gets back to her chair, where she promptly appears as if she's been there all along. She smiles at their confusion.

* * *

Dinner that night is subdued. Yang barely picks at her food. Everyone except Fox watches her anxiously, even Neo. "What?" she says once when she catches everyone looking at her.

Taiyang clears his throat and returns to his plate.

"You haven't eaten anything." Velvet says. She's perfectly willing to state the obvious.

Yang shrugs one shoulder. "I'm not hungry." she says.

"You're never hungry," Coco says. "At least according to Sun."

Yang sighs a little. "He talks about me that much, huh?"

"No." Fox says. He turns his head in her direction before adding, "We pay attention when he does."

"Why?" Yang feels compelled to ask.

"Yang..." Taiyang begins.

"No!" she says angrily. She winces. "Sorry." she adds. "But why would you do that? I barely talked to you guys."

"You looked out for Velvet. That means a lot in my book." Coco says. Her teammates nod.

"Not often enough." Yang mutters.

Velvet reaches over and puts her hand on Yang's. "Yes it was." she says. She smiles. Yang forces herself to smile back.

Neo has finished what was on her plate and is unsubtly eyeing Yang's. "Go ahead." Yang says. No sooner have the words left her lips then her plate disappears and reappears in front of Neo, who's already picked up her fork. "Really Neo?" Yang asks.

"What happened?" Fox says.

"From the look of it, she'd already taken Xiao Long's plate before she gave permission." Coco says. She's still wearing her glasses, but Yang feels sure she's glaring daggers at Neo.

Fox nods in understanding. "You called her Neo?" he asks Yang.

"It's what she said her name was. Neopolitan. Not 'said' said," she hastens to add. "She wrote it down for me."

"Neopolitan? Like the-" Quick as a flash Neo picks up her knife and throws it at Yatsuhashi. He catches it in mid-flight and holds it steady while he finishes his sentence. "Like the ice cream?" he says. He looks at Neo and tosses it back. Neo makes no attempt to grab it. It lands on the table.

Her mismatched eyes glitter.

"Now Neo," Taiyang says. "What have I told you about trying to hurt people while you're under my roof?"

Neo holds up her hand and makes the sign for talking again while she pretends to fall asleep.

Taiyang sighs. "Honestly Yang, I don't know why you wanted her to stay here." he says as he gets up and begins clearing the table.

"If I'd known these guys were coming I might not have." Yang says. She looks meaningfully at Neo.

Neo tosses her head. She stands up and bows curtly to Taiyang.

"I think she's thanking you for dinner." Yang informs her father.

He turns. "You're...welcome?" he says.

Neo nods and leaves the room.

"I can't get a fix on her." Taiyang says. All of CFVY except Velvet offers to help him with the dishes. He declines every time. "She throws knives at people while we're eating, but has the good manners to thank me for a meal?"

Velvet is helping Yang up from her chair. "I think she's looking for something to do." she says. "Sometimes when I look at her, I see this sort of fire in her eyes. But she doesn't have anything to use it on."

"Is that why you wanted her to stay?" Coco asks Yang.

Yang blushes. "Not everything is about my psych profile."

Taiyang turns. "Psych profile?" he asks.

"It was a joke dad." Yang says.

He frowns. "Right..."

Coco continues as if she hadn't been interrupted. "Cause as far as I've heard, the only passion she has is for hurting people."

"What's that old saying, don't judge a book by its cover?" Velvet and Coco walk with Yang into the living room. "Just because she doesn't have any words of her own doesn't mean she's not a book that deserves a chance like everyone else." Yang adds.

Coco sighs. "Yang, honey..."

Yang sits down on the couch with a wince. "What? You think she's too far gone?"

Coco shakes her head. "I just met her. How would I know?" She sits down in the armchair. "But you care so much about other people. Maybe it's time you turned some of that focus towards yourself."

Yang looks at the wall. "I haven't had time to think about it." she murmurs.

"I'm not saying we have to talk now." Coco tells her. "I'm just saying it as a bit of friendly advice."

Yang bites her lip. "Okay."

Velvet leans against Yang's shoulder. "Uuuuuuh." she yawns. "I'm exhausted. We started off before dawn; did Coco tell you?"

Yang shakes her head slightly.

"Okay, well... Glynda thought it best if we leave under cover of darkness, so the other Huntsmen and Huntresses don't have to watch us go. She thinks that'd be bad for morale."

"Just finding out someone's gone is bad enough." Yang says. Coco seems to look at her, her eyes still hidden behind her glasses.

"Yeah. But Glynda makes our excuses better than we could." Velvet says. "It must've taken hours to get through the residential district to the port. We took a nap on the boat, and once we got to Patch..." Velvet yawns again, then stops talking. Yang looks over at her out of the corner of her eye. She's fast asleep.

Coco smiles. She holds out her arms. "I'll get her into her sleeping bag." she offers.

Yang puts her arm around Velvet. "It's okay." she says to Coco. "I like having her close by."

Coco nods understandingly.

Yang sighs as she rests her head on Velvet's. "Thank you all for coming. It means a lot to me." she says.

"You're welcome Yang." Coco says. She puts a hand on Yang's knee. She doesn't say anything else for some time.

"It was your birthday a little while ago, right?" Coco asks suddenly.

Yang nods. "Ruby was still here when we celebrated it. I didn't talk much then." She gives Coco a look. "How'd you know?"

"Must've heard Sun say something about it. Don't know why it came to mind."

"You sure it wasn't cause you were checking me out?" Yang says. For a moment a little of her old flair returns.

"I can neither confirm nor deny it." Coco smirks. "Happy belated, though."

"Can't or won't?"

"Touche!" Coco still doesn't answer her question.

Yatsuhashi and Fox come down from the upstairs bathroom. Coco turns around in her chair, and says 'ssh' quietly. Fox nods. They get their sleeping bags from their packs and take them outside.

"Are you guys going to be okay sleeping outside?" Yang asks.

"If it rains we'll come in." Coco says. "Should be room enough on the floor in here."

Yang nods. "I feel bad we don't have enough spare beds for you."

Coco stretches. "I haven't slept on a real bed in months. It is what it is. We knew when we signed up being Hunters would mean having to rough it every now and then."

Yang looks up at where her room is, the room she used to share with Ruby. "My sister's probably roughing it right now. Before she left, she...said they'd be waiting for me in Haven. I wonder if they still are. Maybe they moved on."

"Focus on getting better." Coco tells her. "Then you can go after her."

"Yeah." Yang changes position. Velvet makes a noise and buries her face in Yang's neck. "Maybe we can go rescue Weiss too, once Ruby finds whatever she's looking for."

"I don't think Little Miss Schnee would appreciate you saying she's in need of rescuing." Coco says.

"From what she told me, her dad is...harsh." Yang doesn't feel comfortable saying any more than that. She sighs. "You must be tired too. I'll help you get Velvet into bed." she offers.

"I'm not a child." Velvet mutters. Coco and Yang look at her in surprise. She sits up. On her cheek is an impression of Yang's jacket.

"I didn't think you were." Yang says gently. "I just didn't want to wake you."

"Mmm" is all Velvet says in response. Yang tries not to take it personally.

She hands Velvet off to Coco who slings one of Velvet's arms around her shoulders. "Sleep well you two." Yang says.

"Right back at you Xiao Long." Coco says.

Yang watches them go out the front door, then she heads upstairs to bed.


	19. Chapter 19

"Hey Ren?"

Ren lowers the map expectantly.

"What do you think of Nora?"

Ren frowns. "I...like...her?"

"Oh." Ruby says. "Does that mean you like her, or you _like_ her?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Yes!" Ruby throws up her hands. "It's how you say the 'like'!"

Ren considers this. "What is it?" he asks after a while.

"What is what?"

"The difference."

Ruby groans good-naturedly. "The first one is where you enjoy spending time with them, and the second is where you _want_ to spend time with them!"

"Oh." Ren looks back at the map.

"Which one is it?" Ruby almost screams at him.

"I don't know." he says. "But it's this way." He points to the left.

Ruby stares after him. "Unbelievable." she mutters.

Jaune tries to smile as he passes. "You think that's bad? Try living with them in one room, having Nora wake you up in the middle of the night to tell you what Ren's dreaming about."

"I didn't do that!" Nora says from behind Jaune.

"Yes you did!" Jaune says.

"Oh. Yeah. I did." Nora says suddenly.

Ruby smiles.

Jaune hurries to catch up to Ren, while Ruby falls in step with Nora. "Don't worry about Ren." Nora is telling her. "He'll figure it out one of these days."

"Figure what out?" Ruby asks slyly.

"The big _it_." Nora says.

"I knew it!" Ruby pumps her fist like her sister. "I tried to get Weiss to place a bet with me on which one of you guys would confess to the other first. It wasn't as much fun as I thought; we both ended up betting on Pyrrha." Suddenly she finds herself wiping her eyes on the back of her hand.

"I think everyone knew that would happen sooner or later." Nora says, more quietly than usual. "We just didn't expect it to be quite so late..."

Ruby puts a hand on Nora's shoulder. "You miss her too." It's a stupid thing to say, she knows.

"She was like the sister I never had." Nora sounds dangerously close to crying.

"Hold that thought okay?" Ruby says. She steps forward and shouts, "Guys, hold up!" Jaune and Ren turn. When they see Nora, they look at each other. "Go ahead." Ruby tells Nora.

"I don't wanna go ahead!" Nora says. "I wanna go back to Beacon. I wanna go back to our dorm room, grab all of Pyrrha's stuff and put it in a museum cause she deserves it!"

Jaune and Ren are with them now. "Does that include her bone?" Jaune asks.

Ruby looks up. "Her what?"

"Your uncle found a bone on the rooftop. They said it was the first metatarsal of an adolescent female, the third bone in the big toe." Ren says.

"So it- It came out when she-" _When she got shot the first time_ , Ruby wants to say, but she doesn't want to say it too. Ren nods. "It's a little macabre for a museum." she ends up saying.

"Yeah." Jaune says. He sighs. "Group hug?" Ruby looks at him. "Someone's gotta keep this party going with a Yang." he says.

Ruby laughs. She wipes away more tears, and joins the hug. "I miss her." she mutters. "I miss Yang. And Weiss. And Blake. And Pyrrha. And Penny." The names come out easier than she expected. They still hurt, each and every one.

* * *

Weiss steps forward. "Mother?" she whispers. Her mother doesn't move. Weiss comes closer until she can look her mother in the face. Still she doesn't move. Finally she blinks. Weiss starts. "Can you hear me?" Weiss asks.

Her mother looks at her. There's no trace of recognition in her face.

"I'm back mother." Weiss says tearfully. She almost reaches out to put a hand on her mother's cheek. "Did you miss me?"

"She doesn't miss much." Whitley says. Weiss jumps up. She clamps her hands to her side and turns to face him. "Only the alcohol when it runs out."

"She's gotten worse, hasn't she?" Weiss says carefully.

Whitley nods. "The doctors say she'll be like this for a while, and then..."

"That doesn't bother you?"

Her brother shrugs. "She's already dead, really. It's just a matter of when her brain lets her body get some rest."

"How can you SAY that?" Weiss demands, despite every instinct in her body telling her it's a bad idea. "She's right here!"

Whitley scoffs, but he doesn't meet her eyes. "That? That's not her. That's a statue. A statue that drinks, I grant you, but it's like pouring it down the drain." He finally looks up. "Not everyone has the luxury of dwelling on the past, Weiss. Some of us have the present to think about, and the future." There's none of his usual arrogant tone in his voice now. His words sound oddly hollow. "When you're done out here, I'm sure your recital could use some more work." With that, he turns and leaves the garden.

Weiss stands looking after him for a long time, fists clenched, trying not to cry. It's something she's gotten good at. Then she turns back to her mother. "Don't listen to him mother." she says. "Father's had a long time to work on him, hasn't he?"

Her mother reaches for her glass. It's empty.

"Let me." Weiss hastily fills her mother's glass for her. She has to put in her hand. Her mother puts it to her lips and starts drinking automatically. Weiss sits down in the other chair, which is only there as a formality. "Let me tell you a story too," Weiss says. She lowers her voice. "But it's a secret. You can't tell anyone, especially not Father." Weiss imagines her mother's lips curving upward slightly in amusement. She likes that thought. "This is a story about a little dork named Ruby Rose, who warmed my heart and then stole it for herself. One day I'll find her, and I'll get it back. I promise."

She lies.


	20. Chapter 20

The next morning Yang awakens to the sounds of a scuffle outside. She drags herself out of bed and over to her window. Pulling up the shade, she sees her father sparring with Velvet, the rest of the latter's team off on the side, ready and waiting with encouragement. Yang vaguely remembers Velvet not being allowed to use her weapon during the Breach, but can't remember why Coco had done that. As Yang stands there wracking her brain, Taiyang looks up and sees her in the window. He waves, and Velvet turns and waves too.

But seeing a fight and knowing she can't take part has Yang feeling terrible already. She lowers the blinds without waving back to them and walks to the door.

Something catches her eye as she steps out into the hallway. She looks down. Neo's dozing off to the left. "Were you waiting for me?" Yang asks.

Neo sits up straight, rubbing her eyes. She gets to her feet and shrugs with a smirk.

Then Yang notices what she's wearing. "Those are the clothes you wore when we fought on the train." she says. "I thought you said those got shredded."

Neo wiggles her fingers.

"Oh yeah. Your Semblance." Yang feels stupid for forgetting that. "So what are you really wearing? Still Slayer right?"

Neo's smirk deepens. She comes close. Dangerously close. She looks up into Yang's eyes, holding her gaze for a long moment. Then Neo takes Yang's hand in both of hers and fastens it around Neo's throat. "Hey." Yang croaks. She tries to pull away, but Neo is stronger right now. "What- What are you doing?"

Neo continues to stare at Yang, who's feeling more uncomfortable by the moment. Finally she loosens her grip on Yang's hand and drags it slowly down her body. Judging by the feel of it, she doesn't seem to be wearing anything but a bra and panties.

Yang's heart is pounding painfully in her chest.

Neo puts Yang's hand on her left breast, and lets go.

Yang pulls away as if she's been burnt. "What is _wrong_ with you?" she whispers.

Neo smirks again. She gently but firmly grabs Yang by the shoulders and walks forward, swaying her hips, pushing Yang up against the wall. Yang tries to lean out of the way. Neo leans in. She presses her lips to Yang's cheek in a surprisingly chaste kiss. The pink-haired girl is so short that she has to stand on her tiptoes to reach. Her leg comes up to rest between Yang's thighs.

Yang's mouth opens slightly. A flash of heat runs through her body. "Stop it..." she pants. To her surprise, Neo obeys.

She pulls back, looking almost disappointed, lowering her leg as she does so, then settles down onto both feet. She cocks her head. She holds up her hands as if they're a camera, getting Yang perfectly in frame before looking up at her. She winks and sashays away.

Gradually Yang manages to unstick herself from the wall. Her shirt and jacket are clinging to her, positively drenched with sweat. She stares down the hallway after Neo. _Black lace_ , she thinks nonsensically. _She was wearing black lace underwear._ She'd seen it somewhere in those last few seconds. Or maybe she's just imagining what color it might be.

She shakes her head furiously and decides on a long shower. A long, cold shower. Very cold.

* * *

Afterwards, Yang finds Velvet waiting for her downstairs. "Good morning!" she sings.

"Hey." Yang says, somehow managing a smile. "Have you...seen Neo?"

"I think she's doing laundry." Velvet says with a small frown. "Why, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing." Yang says. "Just wondering." Did her voice tremble just now? "How long have you guys been up?" she asks as she heads into the kitchen.

"Not long. About an hour or so." Velvet says. She eyes the serving of Pumpkin Pete's Yang sets out for herself. "You gonna eat all of that?" she asks skeptically.

Yang nods. "I feel like I need the sssshh-" Neo comes out of the laundry room under the stairs, carrying a basket full of clothes. She looks in and smiles at Yang. "-I feel like I need the sugar..." Yang stammers.

Velvet looks between Neo and Yang. "Is something the matter?"

"No, no, everything's fine." Yang busies herself with her cereal, hoping Velvet doesn't notice how much she's started to blush.

If she does, she doesn't mention it. "Did you sleep okay?" she asks Yang.

"I don't remember it, so I guess I must've."

Velvet's ears droop. "That bad, huh?"

"It's not-" Suddenly Yang doesn't feel like lying any more. "Yeah."

Velvet gets up from her chair and gives Yang a gentle hug. Yang leans into it. She closes her eyes.

The front door opens and shuts. "Yang?" her father calls. "You up?"

She pulls away from Velvet. "In here dad." she says.

Taiyang pokes his head into the kitchen. "How's it going kids?" he asks with a smile.

"I'm doing great Mr Xiao Long!" Velvet says. "Thanks again for sparring with us!"

"My pleasure Velvet. Just a shame we couldn't go all out. I wouldn't want that Neo learning my best tricks via osmosis."

"That's _my_ Semblance though." Velvet looks puzzled.

"I meant by spying on us." Taiyang says by way of apology. "With her illusions, it wouldn't even matter if we tried to ban her from watching us. She could just turn herself invisible and watch anyway."

"Illusions?" Velvet frowns.

"What is it?" Yang asks her.

But Velvet shakes her head. "Just a thought..."

Taiyang glances at her, then turns his attention back to Yang. "How you doing little dragon? You feeling any better?"

"A little" is all Yang can bring herself to say.

"It's better than nothing though, right?" Taiyang puts a hand on her shoulder. "You're eating too; that's good!"

Velvet breaks the sudden silence. "So Yang, you got any plans for the day?" she asks.

Yang shrugs. "Not much. Help around the house, hang out with you guys..."

"You could come outside and spar with us." Taiyang suggests.

Yang flinches. "I don't know. I'd have to completely relearn how to fight." She raises her stump for emphasis.

"Everyone's gotta start somewhere. And the sooner _you_ start, the sooner you can be on your feet chasing after your friends."

"What makes you think they'd want to see me?" Yang gets up and puts her bowl in the sink. She can't clean it well with just one arm.

"I don't know Weiss and Blake that well-" Yang flinches again at the sound of her name. "-but I know Ruby would. You're her big sister; why wouldn't she want to see you?"

"I'll think about it." That's all Yang is willing to commit to.

"Ooh! Or I could braid your hair." Velvet says, her eyes dancing.

"What? Why?"

"Coco's been talking about it since she first met you!" Velvet says. "No better time than now!"

"Well if that's true, I better take another shower." Yang runs her fingers through said hair. "I don't think I gave it enough time to dry earlier."

"Okay! I'll get my things!" Velvet hurries out the kitchen door.

"You gonna want some fresh clothes to wear?" Taiyang asks.

Yang thinks about it. "Sure." she says. "It _is_ laundry day, right?"

"Yup!" Taiyang says. "Guess I better get started."

* * *

Before Yang goes upstairs, she decides to hunt down Neo. She finds the pink-haired girl sitting on the railing of the porch watching Fox and Yatsuhashi. Yang forces herself not to look at the two men of CFVY doing what she cannot. Instead, she pokes Neo carefully, relieved to feel fabric beneath her finger instead of more skin like before. "Hey you." she says. She hopes she doesn't sound too mean. Neo turns her head, though her mismatched eyes are still on Yatsuhashi and Fox. "I'm going to take a shower. I want you to stay right here. No...spying on me, got it?"

Neo laughs noiselessly, but she looks over at Yang and nods. _When I come for you, I want you to know._ The words hang unspoken in the air between them. Yang shivers. Is that what she thinks Neo is saying, or what she WANTS Neo to say?

In the bathroom, she stands awkwardly in place for a long time before she begins to undress. The purely physical sensations caused by the pink-haired girl pressing herself against her are long gone, leaving in their place a faint tingling inside her. Instead of a shower, she decides on a bath, sitting on the edge of the tub while it fills and running her fingers in circles in the water. _What is Neo after?_ she wonders.

* * *

"Yang?"

Yang looks up. She's sitting in the clearing in the forest. "What?" is all she can think of to say.

"I was just asking when the last time you had this cut was." Velvet says from behind her.

Yang feels something in her hair. She pulls away, scrabbling to her feet. "Hey!" Velvet says. Yang looks around, eyes wild.

Coco looks over Velvet's shoulder. She's sitting behind Velvet on the rock Yang had been sitting on the day before, braiding Velvet's hair. "Xiao Long?" she asks slowly.

Yang blinks. "How did I get here?" she asks.

"You walked here with us." Velvet says. She looks scared. Her eyes dart to Coco.

"I- I don't..." She tries to remember. There's nothing there. "I don't remember any of it."

"You talked a little on the way." Coco says. "What's the last thing you do remember?"

"I was in the bathroom. I was getting ready to take a bath..." Something flickers in the trees. Something black. Her blood is a steady _boomboomboomboomboomboomboom_ in her ears. "Hhhow do I know you guys are even real?" she asks. "I hallucinated before; maybe I'm hallucinating now."

"Yang-" Velvet is getting to her feet.

"Stay back!" Yang warns her away. "I can figure this out." she tells herself, over and over again. "I figured out Neo can't talk. I figured out her powers. Some of them." _Neo!_

She turns her back to Coco and Velvet. "Neo?!" she yells. "Are you out there? Is this your fault?"

"Yang, we left her back at the house." Coco says.

Yang hears her, but not really. The words register as they are spoken, then just as quickly disappear. And speaking of disappearing...

She sees a flash of white. An umbrella, moving deeper into the forest. "NEO!" She takes off at a run, faster than she's moved in a long time. She laughs as she feels the wind rushing through her hair and the ground disappearing beneath her feet. This is living! Not sitting in bed, day in, day out, waiting for something to change, for someone to come back to her. "They're gone! They left me! And I don't-" She hurls herself at a tree, felling it with a single blow. "-CARE!" The tree groans and begins to topple over. It lands with a crash.

In the silence, Yang hears her. "You're running, Yang."

She sounds so sad. Yang wants to hate her. She _should_ hate her. "I never asked for you!" she yells at the voice. "I never asked to fall in love with you!" Her voice breaks on the word 'love'. She growls and keeps on running.

By rights, she should be having a heart attack like Velvet said yesterday. But her anger gives her power. It always has. It's the one thing she can count on. She can feel the flames heating up around her. Soon they'll burn bluer than the sky, turn her hair blue too maybe. Then no one will recognize her. She can run, find out who did this to her, who ruined her life and took her friends away, took Pyrrha and Penny. Penny had been Ruby's friend, so she was Yang's friend too by extension, and-

Ruby. Yang stops dead. She looks up at the sky. It's still early in the day. The sun is behind her. She'd been heading toward Vacuo, not Mistral and Haven, and Ruby and Jaune and Nora and Ren (but not Pyrrha). "You're running, Yang." Blake says from her right. "Just like I did." She's leaning against a tree. She looks afraid, but afraid is too small a word. She looks _terrified_ , the way she had that night when that monster in the mask-

Yang flinches and steps back. Her arm is burning. She can feel it. She looks down. It's not there. But if she flexes it, she can still feel it. It hurts. It burns.

 _I burn._

The flames are everywhere, around and inside her. She takes another step back, and she's at Beacon, watching the figure she now knows to be Adam stab the woman she loves in the gut. "Get AWAY FROM HER!" she screams. She blasts herself forward.

Agony.

White-hot and consuming like the sun.

Then the red mist takes her.

* * *

She's standing at the edge of a cliff. She knows this cliff well, but she doesn't know what she's doing here. She's looking down into the water. Would her Aura protect her from a fall like that? She can't tell.

To the north is a simple marble slab. All that remains of their mother.

She comes close to it. "Hey mom." she whispers. "It's been a while, huh?"

The marble slab says nothing.

"I-" She sits down in front of it. "I messed up. I messed up a _lot_ , and I don't know how to fix it."

 _Tell me honey,_ the wind whispers.

And she does. About Blake ("You'd like her, mom." she says. "I wanted to bring her here so she could meet you, but we never got the chance."); about Ruby ("She has your eyes all right, just like everyone always said. She's gone to Haven to find out more and I'm so worried about her. She's not on her own, but... JN- JNR," she corrects herself. "JNR doesn't really know her that well. Uncle Qrow said he'd look after them. Does that mean they'll be okay?"); about Weiss ("When I first met her, I think I wanted to hate her. She was mean to Ruby, and we all know what that means. Big sister overprotection mode. But she's really nice once you get to know her. She's still got her sticking points, but we all learned to live with them."); about her arm ("It hurts mom. I know it shouldn't, there's nothing there _to_ hurt, but it keeps waking me up. And that's not the only thing."); about what happened at Beacon ("I should've waited. I should've tried to figure out what was going on. But Blake was in trouble. I _couldn't_ -" Her voice breaks.)

Eventually she falls asleep, her cheek against the cold smooth marble that is everything and nothing like Summer Rose all at once.

* * *

"Do you understand now?" Blake asks. Yang is nowhere. She is nothing. She can only listen. "He hurt you. And I couldn't _stand it_..." Blake is in front of her now, but Yang is nowhere. She is nothing. Yang wants to reach out to her. She can't. Blake wipes away her own tears, even as Yang's heart is screaming for her to do it instead. "I shouldn't have left." Blake whispers.

And Yang finds her voice.

"But you did." There is no anger when she speaks. It is a fact.

"But I did." Blake turns away. She starts to fade into the nowhere and the nothing.

But Yang is not done.

"I still love you." she says.


	21. Chapter 21

Her parents try to wrap her up in a hug, but they find themselves embracing a shadow instead. "Blake?" her mother says. She runs out into the hall. Blake looks at her for a moment from the doorway to her room. "Blake!" Kali takes a step forward. Blake disappears inside, closing the door with a bang. _More like with a Yang,_ she thinks and immediately feels like throwing up.

Not-Adam is there waiting for her. "Running away again. How very like you, Blake."

Blake almost tears the room apart in her search for Gambol Shroud. "I'm not running," she hisses. "I just need some time to myself."

"Not yet perhaps. But you will."

She finds Gambol Shroud tucked under her mattress. She pulls it out of its sheath, automatically placing the blade against her forearm. It's been years since she had to do this. Adam used to hate seeing her get hurt. Then he hated seeing her express any weakness at all. Try as she might, though, she can't bring herself to press down. She looks at her other hand. It's shaking violently. She closes her eyes, tries to find that center of the storm inside she'd started to feel at Beacon.

"Hey." Blake's eyes fly open. She looks up at Not-Yang. She's reaching out with her one good arm, almost touching Blake. _Drip drip drip._ "Don't do that."

"Why not?" Blake says. She jerks her arm away. "It's just another way of self-destructing, like all of you seem to want."

"Yang wouldn't want you to hurt yourself." Not-Yang says. She's smiling. It's grotesque. _She's_ grotesque.

"Well Yang's not here, is she?" Blake snaps.

"And whose fault is that?" Not-Adam says from behind her.

Blake whirls around to face him. "It's yours!" she says angrily.

"I'm not the one who forced you to run." He pulls out his sword and rests the tip of it underneath her chin.

"You told me you'd destroy everything I love!"

"And here you are. With your parents." Not-Yang says. She stands next to Not-Adam. Both sets of eyes are glowing red.

Gambol Shroud falls from suddenly-numb hands. "I- No..."

"It's like you said to me. You _deserve_ it. You want him to hurt you."

"That's not- That's not-"

Not-Adam shifts his sword to his other hand and slaps Not-Yang across the face the way he used to do to Blake. Not-Yang falls to the ground. Not-Adam points the sword at her chest. "It's like _I_ said to _you_. She is the price of your freedom."

She seems to see the muscles in his arm tensing beneath his trenchcoat as he prepares to stab. "YANG!" she screams.

The door opens, or rather it falls open, with her mother on top of it. "Blake!" Ghira is about to reach down and scoop her up, but Kali holds him back.

She moves into the room quietly, kneeling down next to Blake. "Honey?" she whispers. Blake doesn't respond. Kali's knee brushes against Gambol Shroud. She looks at it and puts two and two together. "Oh Blake..." She wraps her arms around her daughter, motioning to her husband to join them, which he does.

"Are you okay?" Ghira asks. "Did you, uh..."

Blake shakes her head. "I couldn't do it." she says tearfully. "I almost did though. I'm sorry."

"We never judged you for it." he says. "We wanted you to stop, sure, but we never thought any lesser of you."

"You should have." she mutters. Her parents frown. They wait for her to explain. She doesn't.

"Blake?" Kali says after a while. She pulls back to look her daughter in the eye. "Who is Yang?"

Blake flinches. "The best thing that ever happened to me." she finds herself saying.

"You said she told you she would destroy everything you loved." Ghira says.

Blake shakes her head. "That was- That was someone else."

"You've had a busy life." Kali tries to joke. No one says anything. She clears her throat. "Blake." she says. "You know we don't want to push you into anything, but we're very worried about you."

"I know." Blake says. "I wish I could tell you." She offers a smile. "It sounds like you heard a lot already."

Ghira looks at Kali. "That was your mother's idea."

She swats his arm. "You would have done the same if you weren't worried about breaking the door."

"It broke anyway!" he laughs.

Kali looks back to Blake. "How about we all get some rest? You can sleep with us in our room if you want."

"I-" Blake's eyes threaten to start weeping all over again. "I'd really appreciate it."


	22. Chapter 22

"...been moping around for months, but it's gotten worse..."

"...trauma has a way of resurfacing..."

"...screaming her head off-"

"...fell out of the sky. We still don't know-"

"...almost glad Ruby's not here-"

Yang's eyes flutter open. The ceiling hasn't changed. She turns her head. Arm still missing in action. MIA. She turns her head to the other side. There are people in the room with her, huddled together next to Ruby's bed and whispering as if they have secrets they wouldn't want even an unconscious cripple to know. She can't make any of them out. She tries sitting up. Everywhere hurts. She exhales a little more forcibly than she's used to.

The people stop talking and look at her. One of them's her father. "Yang..." He stumbles over to her. "You gave us quite a scare."

She opens her mouth. "...sorry..." she croaks. There's an unfamiliar smell about him, she thinks. It takes her a moment to realize it's not unfamiliar at all. It's just old. "Have you been drinking?" she asks.

"No." he says, rocking back upright. "Maybe. A little." He frowns. "The point is..." He points a finger at her. "Don't do that again." With that he makes his way back to his chair.

"I'm sorry..." she murmurs. _Am I, though?_ She tries to remember what happened. "I was running. Why was I running?"

One of the other people clears their throat. It looks like it's Professor Port. "Miss Adel says you were having your...hair braided-" It even sounds like him, skeptical that such a thing had ever occurred. _What did he think we were doing, having a rave?_ "-when you suddenly jumped up and started acting like you didn't know where you were." Now she remembers, though not all of it. There's still a blank spot between her sitting by the bathtub and sitting in the clearing. "This is not uncommon after traumatic experiences. I myself-"

Yang cuts him off. "I'm sorry," she begins, and he closes his mouth, to her shameful gratification. "But why are you here?"

"We were already on our way." the third person says. Definitely Oobleck. "We heard a commotion and, fearing the worst, sprang into action a bit overenthusiastically. Once we had assured Team CFVY that we were in fact real, we joined the hunt, and found you unconscious at the edge of the island."

"Did my dad send for you?" Getting the answers she's looking for is starting to feel like pulling teeth.

"No no." Port says. "We were simply here to catch up, to unwind. Had we known Team CFVY would be here, we would have...postponed our visit."

"Time permitting." Oobleck adds.

"And Glynda permitting." Port adds as well. Oobleck nods.

"Right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing." Taiyang mumbles.

Yang swallows. She looks down at her arm again.

"Erm, Tai..." Oobleck mutters.

"What?" Taiyang takes a moment to realize his mistake. "Oh. Oh Yang, I am so sorry-"

"No, it- It's fine." Yang hastens to assure him. "I should be used to it by now, right?" She wants desperately for someone to tell her no, but no one does. "So, uh..." she says to fill the silence. "How long was I out?"

"I should say...about twelve hours?" Oobleck hazards. "Most of that time was spent here, but the, uh, search did take about two hours in and of itself."

"Oh." Her stomach growls. "How's Velvet?" She can still see that wide frightened glance she'd given Coco if she thinks hard enough.

"Physically, Miss Scarlatina is fine. Emotionally, she's somewhat distraught. She's been in several times to check up on you. It took a great deal of coaxing on all our parts to convince her to spend the night with her team instead of in here." Port says.

"I'm so sorry." Yang says, even though Velvet's not in the room. "She didn't ask for that to happen."

"You can make your apologies in person in the morning." Port says. "But I'm afraid she may have to come to you. You burned through a great deal of your Aura during your escape attempt; you'll probably be under the weather for quite a while."

"Great." Yang flops back down onto her pillow. "More sitting around."

"I've filed a prescription with the pharmacy in Vale for something that'll help you sleep." Oobleck says. "It should be ready within the week."

"But I've been sleeping!" Yang says. "Didn't you just say I was out for twelve hours?"

"You were unconscious, not asleep. There is a physiological difference-" He correctly interprets the look on Yang's face. "-which can wait to be explained another time. In the meanwhile, you get as much rest as you can, and Professor Port and I will make our way back to Beacon." He nudges Taiyang with his foot.

Taiyang sits up with a snort. He'd been close to falling asleep. "And I will see you out!" he declares. "I'll look in on you before I crash, and I do mean _crash_ -"

Port and Oobleck help Taiyang out of Yang's bedroom, the two professors wishing Yang a good night and a speedy recovery before they close the door behind them. The only light in the room is the faint traces of moonlight peeking through the blinds. Yang sighs and closes her eyes. She waits for the darkness to take her again.

Something rustles. She opens her eyes and looks around the room. At first she doesn't see anything, then... there, by Ruby's window. Where Blake had been yesterday. _Was it yesterday?_ Neo sits on the windowsill, feet dangling, watching Yang as if there's nothing wrong about this scenario in the slightest.

Yang sits up, clutching the bedsheets close with her one real arm. "What do you want? How did you get in here?"

Neo hops down and points to the door. It looks as though it's open now, with Port and Oobleck and Taiyang frozen in midmotion as they're saying good night. There's a shadow slipping in behind them, and as Yang looks at it, it seems to wink. Then the illusion vanishes.

"That's half my question. What about the other half?" Yang demands.

Neo shrugs. "They wouldn't tell me what was going on." she 'says' in Yang's own voice. "I hate not knowing things."

"Stop that." Yang says.

"Stop what?" Other-Yang says. She even looks like Yang now, and as if that wasn't bad enough, she has both her arms.

Yang drops the covers and grabs Neo by the collar. "That." she says. Then she blinks. Neo looks the same as ever. "You... Did you just...look like me?" Yang asks.

Neo shakes her head. "Don't be stupid." she 'says' in Taiyang's voice now. "I don't use my Semblance for cheap psychological tricks." She frowns. "Uh, not usually, anyway."

"Whatever." Yang lets go of her. "Just use someone else's voice, okay? Like Roman's?"

"Pfffffft." Neo uses Roman's voice for a moment. "I'm bored with using him."

"Then don't say anything. And go back to bed." Yang looks away from the pink-haired girl.

Neo pouts. Yang doesn't notice. "Fine. You win this round." she says as Roman. She hops off Yang's bed and walks to the door. "Offer still stands though. Need to vent? I'm here, and I won't judge. And if I do, you'll never know." It opens and closes in a blink, and Yang is alone once again.


	23. Chapter 23

"The Belladonnas are back!" the tailor shouts into the back room. "Hold my calls!"

"You don't get any calls!" someone shouts in return.

"If I **do** get any hold them!" the tailor shouts. She smiles as she comes around the counter toward Blake and Kali. "It's an old joke at this point, but better an old joke than none at all."

Blake shrugs uncomfortably.

Kali takes over. "You said the new shipment came in." she prompts the large dark-skinned woman.

The tailor nods. "We've just finished updating the registry." She takes them over to the scanning devices. "Stand on the circle and the machine will take your measurements."

Blake does as instructed. As a soft white light appears at eye level and scans her up and down, she finally says, "I'm sorry; I don't think I caught your name the other day."

"Not to worry dear. It's Alice." the tailor says. "Alice Velte. You don't have to tell me who you are; even if the family resemblance wasn't quite as striking, your mother introduced us before."

Blake shoots her mother a grateful glance. Her mother smiles at her.

The white light freezes. Alice huffs. She whacks the machine somewhere that Blake can't see. "I'm sorry," she apologizes. "The scanner got stuck. You'll need to turn to the side so it can finish properly."

Blake sighs. She turns to the side. The white light flickers and resumes scanning. Blake makes to raise her hands above her head in a stretch, but Alice stops her. "You move too much and we'll have to start over."

Blake sighs again. Suddenly the solution comes to her. It's so simple. She leaves a shadow clone behind her and begins browsing through the inventory.

Alice jumps. "How did-"

"It's my Semblance." Blake says. She keeps looking at the shadow clone to make sure it doesn't abruptly vanish. It doesn't, somewhat to her surprise. _My Semblance must be evolving,_ she thinks to herself. "This one looks nice." she says out loud. She points to an entry, stepping aside for Alice to inspect the display panel.

"That's a good pick!" Alice says. "Should suit you very well. Let me go back and get it." She heads into the back of the shop, leaving Blake alone with her mother.

"Mom?" Blake says. "I want to pay for this. I've still got some money in my account from school."

"Absolutely not!" Kali says.

"But-"

Kali's smile widens. "No buts about it. You're a guest in my household."

"Is that all I am?" Blake's ears droop. "Just a guest? Just...passing through?"

"Of course not!" Kali says. She puts a hand on her daughter's arm. "It was just a joke Blake. I'm sorry."

"I'm the one who should be sorry!" Blake pulls away. She couldn't say why. "I'm jumping at shadows. I- I'm seeing things that aren't there, and I'm hearing them... I'm so _angry,_ all the time!"

Her mother reaches out for her again, but not all the way. "Are you ready to talk about it?"

Blake shakes her head. "No," she says. "But it's not like I have much of a choice. I keep going on the way I am, and so do they." She raises her hands, impotently trying to describe what she sees with her movements. "The...visions. Hallucinations. Whatever they are."

"We can start there if you like." Kali says. "When you see things, what do you see?"

Blake is about to respond when they both pick up the sound of approaching footsteps. "Not here. Later. Okay?" Blake says. Kali nods.

Alice pokes her head through the dividing door between the front and back of the shop. "Changing room's just through here. There's a mirror inside in case you're shy."

 _Shy's not the word I would've used,_ Blake thinks as she carefully takes the clothes from Alice and steps inside the changing room. _Quiet. Reserved. Mellow. Occasionally snarky._

 _Broken._ Her eyes fly open as she's about to take her shirt off.

 _You're not wrong,_ she admits after a moment.

* * *

She steps out into the front of the shop. "What do you think?" she asks.

Alice blinks. And blinks again. "I think I was wrong." she says. "It doesn't just suit you. It _fits_."

Blake looks down at herself. "It's a little revealing." She's not sure how she feels about the crop top in particular. If she moves too suddenly the coat has a tendency to pull away and reveal her new scar. It still looks **horrible**.

"Good for the local weather." Alice says. "And the coat would help you everywhere else."

Blake looks at her mother. Her mother offers two thumbs up.

"We'll take it." Blake says. She almost reaches for her wallet, then remembers her pajama pants didn't have any pockets, so she'd left it at the house. Kali is already taking hers out. "Mom..." Blake says half-heartedly.

Kali gives her a look that says she knows exactly what her daughter is thinking. She's probably right about it too.

* * *

Later that evening Blake sits on the porch, her head in her hands. She can hear the 'ooga chaka ooga ooga' of Hooked On A Feeling coming from somewhere in the house. Her parents claim it was one of the songs that played at their wedding, a mental image Blake has always been more than able to do without.

As the song continues however, it's not her parents Blake finds herself thinking of.

The screen door opens. Blake doesn't look up. "Blake?" her mother says softly. The couch creaks a little as she sits down. "How are you doing?"

"Fine." Blake says. She forces herself to lift her head up. "I haven't hallucinated all day."

"You said we could talk about them later..." Kali says. She gently puts a hand on Blake's back.

Blake sighs. "I know." She looks off into the trees. "I kind of want to talk about something else though."

"Oh." Kali says. She withdraws her hand, placing them both between her knees while she waits patiently.

Blake narrows her eyes. For a moment, she thinks she can see something moving out there. She shouldn't find it too surprising given the breeze, but...

"What did you want to talk about?" Kali asks.

Blake blinks. "What?" Whatever she thought she had seen is gone now. "Um..."

 _"I said I'm hooked on a feelin', and I'm high on believin'... That you're in love with me..."_

"It's about..." She tenses, as if worried even saying her name would bring her phantom to her. "Yang." Nothing happens. She still denies herself a sigh of relief.

"Okay." Kali says. "What about her?"

Blake finds her hand rubbing her right bicep, at about the same place Adam had...

"I loved her." Blake says. "I think... I think I always loved her."

"That's wonderful." Kali says somewhat hesitantly.

"It really isn't." Blake says. "She was- She was just so _nice_. Even when she was angry. Does that make sense?" Kali doesn't know what to say. She puts her hand on Blake's leg, and when Blake looks at her, she nods encouragingly. "She didn't even know I was a Faunus until a few weeks after we met. We ran into someone at the docks while chasing down a lead about some Dust robberies. That someone was another Faunus. He doesn't really enter into this." She sighs in frustration. "I'm getting sidetracked." she says.

"Take your time Blake." Kali says. "You're doing fine."

"...yeah." She looks into the trees again. "A couple weeks after _that_ , the stuff at the docks..."

"The 'stuff' that led to you revealing you're a Faunus?" Kali asks after another moment of silence from Blake.

Blake nods. "Yeah. I had some problems with another one of my teammates. Turns out the White Fang had been attacking her father's company for as long as she could remember, and she'd been internalizing her father's hatred toward them, and Faunus in general. I think we got it sorted out though." She frowns and looks away.

"Getting sidetracked again." Not-Yang says from out of nowhere. Blake closes her eyes, and starts to tremble. "Focus up, buttercup."

"Blake?" Kali says from behind her.

Blake raises a hand to fend her off. "I'm fine. Just..." She motions to her ears.

"Whenever you're ready dear." Kali says.

Blake slowly exhales and returns to her seat. "Where was I?"

"A couple weeks after the docks."

Blake nods. "Right." She almost smiles, the corners of her mouth moving up a quarter of an inch. "I was in the library. I was...studying-"

"Reading smutty literature." Not-Weiss says dismissively.

"I was studying," Blake resumes. "When Yang came up beside me and put a hand on my shoulder. She was trying to tell me something, and I turned my head and..." Blake blushes. "She had her mouth right next to my ear. We ended up kissing."

"Oh!" Kali says. "You know your father and I have always loved how much you read, but we never expected it to improve your love life so drastically."

Blake chuckles. "I always have to be different, don't I?" Her smile fades. "After that, Yang and I had a frank discussion of views. One of many. We decided to keep being 'a thing'."

Kali smiles.

"We kept going all through the Vytal Festival, and then..." Blake's stomach clenches. Her wound burns too.

Suddenly she stands up. "Mom! Look!"

Her mother looks where Blake is pointing. Someone's clinging to a tree in the forest. They're clad all in black but for a familiar white mask. "They're spying on us now?" Kali asks in disbelief.

The figure disappears into the forest. Blake is already moving after her.

"Blake, be careful!" Kali cries.

The screen door opens. "Kali, what's going on?" Ghira asks.

She turns to answer him.

* * *

Blake pursues the spy down to Kuo Kuana proper. A quick use of her Semblance on the rooftop in front of them brings them up short, just long enough for Blake to engage. "Why are you spying on me?" she asks as Gambol Shroud's blade clashes with their whip.

They say nothing. Something in their body language is familiar. More than that, it tells Blake that her opponent is holding back.

Blake turns her head to the right. Her opponent follows suit, but not quickly enough. Blake's shadow clone snatches a Scroll from her opponent's pocket and tosses it into the air. Blake leaps back, wrapping Gambol Shroud's ribbon around her opponent's waist and pulling hard when they leap up to try and retrieve their Scroll. Blake catches it instead. She steps away from the spy, pointing the pistol part of Gambol Shroud at them.

"What's on this?" she demands.

Her opponent is lying face-down, but they finally have something to say. "Give it to me." a familiar voice says.

Blake's ears go flat. "I should've known you'd have had an ulterior motive for visiting me." she says coldly. "Ilia."

Ilia looks up. Her mask is damaged and falling away in pieces after its collision with the rooftop. "You've got people in high places worrying about you." she says.

"What kind of people?" Blake says.

Ilia gets to her feet. She's glaring, but her skin is green. She doesn't say anything.

They circle around each other warily. Blake removes her coat, tucking Ilia's Scroll into one of her pockets. "I remember what you said about the Faunus at Beacon." Blake says. "You said they shouldn't have to hide. So what were you doing in the forest, if it wasn't hiding?"

"In a perfect world, they shouldn't have to hide." Ilia says. "But the humans are so afraid of us."

"There aren't any humans here. You're being evasive."

"Shut up!" Ilia's skin turns red. She charges.

Between the unpredictability of Ilia's whip and Blake's own lingering fatigue from the fever, she finds herself tiring quickly. A stray crack of the whip bites into her injured side. Blake screams. She falls to her hands and knees, somehow managing to keep hold of the Scroll.

The whip coils back into a rapier-like sword, similar to Myrtenaster. Ilia takes a step forward, pointing the tip at Blake. "Give it to me." she says again.

Blake doesn't speak. One hand steals to her scar. It comes away covered in blood. She tries to stand up, but falls flat on her face. Ilia crouches down. She turns Blake over. Her eyes go wide at the sight of Blake's scar, and her skin turns green. "He did this to me." Blake pants. "Adam."

"He must have had a reason." Ilia says, but her hand falters. "What did you do?"

"I stood up to him." Blake says. "But before that... Before that I ran. He's a monster."

"They told me you'd say that." Ilia says. She adds a lightning Dust cartridge to the chamber of her weapon before pointing it back at Blake. "I don't want to use this if I don't have to. Give me the Scroll."

Blake smiles grimly. "You're going to have to." she says.

Ilia's skin returns to normal. "So be it." She raises her weapon above her head. It starts to uncoil.

Blake stares up at Ilia. _I'm not closing my eyes any more,_ she thinks.

Ilia hesitates. "You want me to hit you." she says abruptly.

Blake doesn't say anything.

Ilia lowers her whip again. "Why?"

Blake shakes her head. Her vision starts to swim.

Ilia's skin turns to green once more. She turns to leave.

"Wait." Blake says. Ilia stops. Blake is too tired to wipe her eyes, but she manages to prop herself up onto her elbows despite her scar screaming at her not to. "How much did you hear?" Ilia turns her head away. "Ilia, please." Blake says. "You can't tell them about Yang. You can't tell _him_."

"I...I know where my duty lies." Ilia says. She casts one last look back at Blake. "Where does yours?"

Blake falls back onto the roof. The last thing she sees is Ilia hopping down and out of sight.


	24. Chapter 24

The first thing Yang is aware of this time is that there's someone real pressed up against her. As she struggles back to the realm of conscious thought, something brushes her face. It's not a finger or even a set of fingers. And it's not hair. It's...

"Velvet?" Yang breathes. She's not sure why she's so surprised.

Velvet is asleep next to her, her ears curled up so tight that every time they twitch they tickle Yang's cheek.

"Hey." Yang says. She nudges Velvet gently.

Velvet opens her eyes. "Yang!" she cries. She sits up and flings her arms around Yang.

"Ow!" Yang laughs. "Hey..." She hugs Velvet back as best as she can, which isn't much by her normal standards. "It's okay. I'm okay Velvet."

"No you're not!" Velvet says. She sounds like she's on the verge of tears. "You blacked out... and you tried to run away! And it's all our fault!"

Yang swallows. "It's my fault. I thought- I thought I saw Neo in the trees, and then I just kept running."

"You were running away from home! Tai said you'd never done that before we came along!" Something wet falls onto Yang's neck. Velvet's definitely crying now.

Yang opens her mouth. "I-" Suddenly she can't think of anything to say. "I'm sorry." She rests her head on Velvet's, careful not to rumple her ears, and tries not to cry herself.

Someone knocks on the door. Velvet straightens up and wipes her eyes. "Come in!" she says without thinking. Then she says, "Oh! I'm sorry Yang. It's your room."

"Ruby's room too." Yang says. "But...yeah... Come in Fox."

Fox lowers his hand. He smiles and crosses over the threshold. "Hello Yang." he says. "Coco's gone over to Signal to check out the library. She wants to find something that will help us help you."

"Like what?" Yang asks.

"A book on dealing with trauma, perhaps. You're not alone you know."

"Yeah." That doesn't really help her feel better. "Port tried to say something about that last night." Then she remembers how Taiyang had been. "How's dad?"

"He has a hangover." Velvet says. "Not surprising. Yatsuhashi and Fox are taking it in turns to try and deal with him."

"I can do it." Yang offers. "It's nothing I haven't done before." She tries getting out of bed, but Fox holds up a hand.

"You need to rest. You were dangerously close to burning out the other day."

"I don't burn out." Yang says irritably.

"Everyone can." Fox says. "You were unconscious when we found you, and your Semblance was still going. There was fire all around your body, but the grass by the gravestone was green." He shakes his head. "That kind of control..."

"I've been doing that for as long as I can remember." Yang tries to focus. She feels like there are things she's forgetting, but they just won't come to her.

Velvet puts a hand on hers. "You want something to eat?" she says softly.

Yang shrugs. "A banana maybe? It's yellow. I could do with something yellow." _To remind me who I am,_ she adds to herself.

"Okay." Velvet looks up. "Fox, you wanna get it for her?" Fox nods and leaves the room.

Once the sounds of his footsteps have retreated into the distance, Yang says quietly, "What happened to Neo?"

"Nothing happened." Velvet says. "She's just...around. She hasn't signed anything either. I think she's worried about you."

"She's got a funny way of showing it." Yang says. Velvet frowns. Yang sighs and explains. "She came in here last night, after Oobleck and the others left. She...offered to listen to me. And it's not the first time. She said something; what was it, day before yesterday? No, the day before that. She said something about it then as well." Yang laughs shortly. "It's not a good sign when even the gremlin thinks I'm messed up, is it? Don't feed her after midnight..."

Velvet leans forward and kisses Yang on the forehead. There's nothing of the deliberate restraint that had been so very evident when Neo had kissed her. It just happens. "Do you want me to go get her?" Velvet asks.

Yang shakes her head. "I didn't even tell you about-" Her stomach knots. "Never mind."

"Didn't tell me about what?" Velvet asks. Then she winces. "Sorry. I shouldn't pressure you."

"It's fine." Yang says, out of habit. "I want to tell you. Just, not right now."

"Okay." Velvet says. She smiles carefully and asks, "Do you wanna snuggle?"

Yang nods very slightly. Velvet sits back down and puts her arms around Yang's torso. "When you're ready, I can take another crack at doing your hair." she says as she gets comfortable. "It's kinda half-and-half right now."

Yang stares at the wall.

Taiyang looks up as Yang enters the kitchen, helped by Velvet. "Hey Yang." he says groggily. He winces at the noise produced by Yang pulling out a chair at the table and sitting down in it. Velvet does the same. "I really messed up huh?"

Yang opens her mouth, then closes it. She has no idea what to say.

"I've been sober for years." Taiyang informs Velvet. "But when you guys brought Yang in, I...I just cracked."

"You promised." Yang says.

"I know" is all he can say in return.

Velvet isn't looking at either of them, her ears stiff with tension. "I'll go and see how Yatsuhashi and Fox are..." she says after a while.

Yang reaches out as she stands up. "Velvet-"

"Call if you need anything." And Velvet's gone.

Yang looks back to her father. "It's always about you, isn't it." she says quietly.

"What? Yang, listen, that's not fair." Taiyang starts to say.

"You listen!" she says. Surprised, he does. "I had to raise Ruby on my own for...I don't even know how long, because you were stuck at the bottom of a bottle, and Uncle Qrow was off doing whatever it is he even does. I don't know; neither of you _ever_ _told_ me!" She gets up. "And all of a sudden, I start acting like I have problems, because I DO, and it's too much for you to handle again! I lost my team, my friends, my sister, my arm, and the woman I..." She stops and fights back tears. Then she resumes where she left off. "...the woman I love. So don't you dare say it isn't fair. Don't. You. Dare."

She stares at him, her breathing hard and ragged. He stares back, mouth agape. She blinks first. "Dad..." she says at last. "I'm so sorry. I- I don't know where that came from."

"...yeah..." he says dumbly.

"Good thing I ran out of stuff to count. Only have five fingers." _As far as jokes go, not one of my finest._

They're still staring at each other.

"Look, maybe...maybe it's better if we don't spend too much time around each other today." Yang wants to say she's sorry, or rather she feels as though she ought to, but she can't get the words to form in her mouth. "I'll be up in our room or something. I don't know."

She turns to leave.

"Yang." he says. She looks back at him. "There's something coming in the mail for you. I hope you like it."

Her heart softens, almost palpably. "Thanks dad. I love you."

"Love you too." he says, but he doesn't meet her eyes.

* * *

Yang makes her way quickly up the stairs. Too quickly. She stumbles and nearly falls, but catches herself with the railing. Breathing hard, she looks up. Neo is standing at the top. "I'm getting really tired of you looking down on me." Yang grumbles.

Neo bends over. Yang wonders if she's about to kick her to the landing, or kiss her, or _something_. Instead she holds out a hand, like they're at a ball and Neo's asking for a dance.

Yang grimaces, but takes the outstretched hand, bracing herself with her feet in case Neo decides to let go. She doesn't. She helps Yang up the stairs and down the hall, pausing while Yang tries to decide which room they should go in. "Do you have a preference?" Yang asks her.

Neo purses her lips, and points in an odd way to the room Yang used to share with her sister.

Suddenly Yang worries that her dad's hiding place might not have been as secure as he thought. _She pointed like she still had her umbrella._ She hopes she'll have a chance to bring that up with him soon. "Okay." She leads the way into the double bedroom, leaving the door open. Neo is about to shut it when she catches Yang's eye. "Uh uh." Yang says. Neo nods and comes to sit by Yang's side on her bed. Yang pointedly moves away from her. "Why are you here?" she asks finally. "Why do you keep acting so...concerned about me?"

Neo frowns. She reaches over and brushes a strand of hair from Yang's face.

Yang flinches. "No." she says in what she hopes is a firm voice. "No one touches my hair unless I say so."

Neo pouts. Her gaze falls to the floor, and she narrows her eyes.

Yang looks where Neo's looking. She's surprised despite herself when she sees pink letters forming on the wood floor. _I thought that was obvious,_ the letters read. They linger until Neo's certain that Yang's had time to read them, then they shimmer and vanish. The ones in their place read, _I like you. You're cute. I'm cute. We're both alone..._

Yang can tell the ellipsis is meant to be there. "I'm not alone. I have friends, remember? Coco, Velvet, Sun... Maybe Fox and Yatsuhashi. Kinda hard to tell with them sometimes."

Neo rolls her eyes and points to the floor. _None of them are going to stay. They're all so busy fighting Grimm and being Huntsmen and Huntresses._ There's a frowny face there, sticking out its tongue. _As soon as you start opening up to glasses lady or the one with ears, they'll be off to Beacon and who knows when you'll see them?_

Yang swallows. "First off, they all have ears. Don't be racist. Second, you've known them, what-" She has to stop and count. "Three days? And that makes you an expert?"

Neo tries to look contrite. _I know people. They pay attention until it stops being convenient for them, and then they're gone._

Yang laughs once. "Not everyone's like Roman, you know. They're good people."

Neo glowers. _Roman was a good person too,_ she writes, the letters larger and thicker than before. _He took care of me. I took care of him. But he's go-_ The words vanish. Neo closes her eyes. Then she opens them and the words reappear. _But he's dea-_ They disappear and Neo thumps a fist repeatedly against her leg. There are tears in her eyes. Yang doesn't know if they're real or just for show. She's not sure she wants to find out. _But Roman's not here any more,_ the words say when they reappear again. _Now I can take care of you. And you can take care of me, if you want._

Yang doesn't know what to say to that. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Neo looking straight at her, but she herself is still looking at the words, trying to puzzle them out. Eventually they disappear and she's left staring at the floor. "You tried to kill me on the train." she says. "I can't let myself forget that."

 _You were in the way,_ Neo writes bluntly. _Now you are the way._ She leans her head to one side and corrects herself by adding a little squiggly line at the end. _Now you are the way?_

"I don't even have words to describe how cliche that is. It's beyond cliche. You wouldn't even find that in one of Bla- In one of her romance novels."

Neo looks up at Yang. _Who?_

"The B in Team RWBY."

Neo still looks confused.

"The girl with black hair?"

Neo raises her eyebrows in understanding. _Where is_ _she_ _?_

Yang stares at the wall. "I don't know."

 _She really hurt you, huh? Even I can tell._

"...yeah."

 _I'm sorry._

Yang scoffs. "Sure you are. And I'm a phoenix instead of a dragon, and my arm's totally gonna grow back." She raises her stump. "Watch." She activates her Semblance, or tries to. She can feel it sputter and die, like Bumblebee without enough Dust for the engine to turn over all the way. "I forgot." she says as she starts to pant. "Port said I burned through most...of my-" She collapses.

She would've fallen face first onto the floor, but Neo catches her with a hand against her ribs and eases her backward instead of forward, onto the bed.

Yang lays there gasping for breath. Neo lays down beside her and watches. Yang can't tell if she's concerned or merely curious. _For someone whose Semblance is basically showing off, she sure leaves a lot to the imagination._ Her choice of words invariably leads her mind to the other day in the hall. "You..." She gasps. "You tried...to seduce me... Right?"

Neo rolls over and begins to write something on the ceiling. _Tried. You've got a thicker head than your dog._

Yang chuckles weakly. She knows she shouldn't, but it's all she can think of to do. Neo smiles. Yang stops laughing a little while later. "Where is he? I feel like I haven't seen him in ages."

 _He's been outside,_ Neo writes. _He likes the fresh air and the company._

"Oh. That...that sounds like him."

Neo hastily adds something. _The one with ears-_ She stops, erases it. _The little one with the funny way of speaking brought him up to see you a few times. I don't know how it went._

"I should ask her. I should tell her how sorry I am. I never meant to hurt anyone..." Neo rolls over onto her stomach and watches Yang some more. Yang wipes her eyes on her sleeve. "But I'm so _tired_." she says.

 _It can wait, right?_ Neo doesn't even have to look at what she's writing. Everything seems effortless for her.

"I guess." Yang stares up at the ceiling until the words fade away.

Neo starts to fidget. _I'm bored,_ she writes. _Wanna make out?_

Yang reaches over and whacks Neo with her pillow.

Neo grins at her. _We could always talk some more._ She erases the first word and puts 'you' in its place.

"About what?" Yang asks.

Neo draws herself shrugging. At least Yang thinks it's meant to be herself.

"That doesn't really help." Yang says. "Give me a subject or something."

 _Tell me about your team,_ Neo writes. _Your sister, woman in white, babe in black..._

"I'm not talking about Blake." Yang says vehemently. Neo looks over. "I don't know what you want to hear. My sister is... She's amazing. I practically raised her. Dad was not in a great place back then. It took him years to recover from our mother's death."

Neo frowns. _If she's so amazing, where is_ she _? Shouldn't she be helping you get better?_

"The world doesn't stop just because I got injured. And I shouldn't expect her to, either. She's with-" Yang almost says JNPR. "-some of her friends, trying to find out more about the people who attacked Beacon." Yang looks to Neo. "I don't suppose...?"

Neo shakes her head. _They kept things on a need-to-know basis,_ she writes on the ceiling. _And I didn't need to know anything. It was all 'go here, do this, guard the train, make this illusion at this time and this place-'_ She stops and erases everything she'd written before continuing. _Fire woman didn't talk much. She was hot though._

"You just said she was on fire." Yang laughs. "But I'm guessing you mean her appearance."

Neo makes an extremely suggestive symbol on the ceiling.

Yang's entire face turns red. "Hey!" she stammers.

Neo lets out a noise that sounds like the laugh track of a sitcom. She leaves the symbol where it is and starts writing beneath it. _Green hair dark skin girl was cute too. Way too busy doing everything fire woman wanted. Think she might've been in love._

"Do you think she and Mercury were in on it?" Yang feels sick at the thought of Mercury.

 _Definitely,_ Neo writes. _Gray hair was a prick. Don't feel bad for what-_ She pauses. _Don't feel bad for happened._

"Of course I feel bad!" Yang bursts out. "I hit him after the match was over! I punched him in the leg! I must've been hallucinating even back then like Ironwood said..."

Neo frowns, but doesn't write anything.

"I'm not a bad person," Yang sniffs. "Right?" Then she realizes who she's talking to.

 _I don't know what gray hair did to you. Knowing him, though, he deserved what he got._

"Yeah, this conversation was a mistake." Yang sits up. "Remind me never to talk to you about issues of morality." She gets to her feet and is about to leave the room when Neo clicks her fingers. "Don't do that." Yang says tersely. She counts to four before she turns around.

Neo writes something on the ground, angled so that Yang can read it. _Are you upset?_

"Yeah." Yang says.

 _Why?_

Yang doesn't say anything.

 _Is it still about the tournament?_

Yang nods briskly, wishing she had enough control to burn away the tears that threaten her.

 _Why? You made a mistake. It happens._

"I hurt someone after he surrendered! That's something only people like Adam do!"

 _Who?_

Yang curses herself. "It doesn't matter. He's- He's not a good person. And I'm wondering if Blake...if Blake was right to worry about me."

 _I don't like not knowing stuff._ There's an ominous pause in between sentences. _Explain._

"Maybe some other time." Yang turns away. "I'm gonna go watch TV."

Neo hops down off the bed and runs after Yang, who's already heading downstairs. Neo vaults over the railing and lands perfectly on the next step in front of her, glaring daggers.

"Later, Neo." Yang says. She tries to step past her, but Neo gets in her way. "Please? I don't feel like talking any more." Her throat hurts. She might be coming down with something.

Neo finally steps to one side. Her glare does not abate.

Someone has left the music on again in the living room. The song matches Yang's mood eerily well.

 _"_ _I feel so inar, inar, inar, inar, inar, inar, inar, inar - ticulate."_

Yang sits down on the couch and looks for the remote. Neo immediately turns and flees upstairs.

 _"Gotta feelin', gotta feelin', gotta feelin', like a paralyse. It ain't no, it ain't no, it ain't no, it ain't no surprise."_

The next line makes her look suspiciously at the music player.

 _"Turn on the T.V., let it drip right down in your eyes."_

Yang presses the power button.

 _"Hey hey hey hey, it was the DNA... Hey hey hey hey, that made me this way..."_

The first thing she sees is a news report about Beacon. "...with no end in sight. Try as they might, the local Huntsmen and Huntresses can't seem to get a hold of the situation at Beacon Academy."

She presses the button for the next channel, which talks about the CCT. The channel after that talks about the air travel ban. And the one after that...

"Multiple rumors continue to circulate as to who was behind the attacks at the Vytal Festival Tournament. While no one knows for sure, officials have confirmed that high-ranking White Fang member Adam Taurus…"

His face appears in a frame beside the news anchor. It's a still image, but Yang's heart stops beating regardless. Her arm hurts. The wrong one.

The song continues playing, the vocals replaced by a guitar repeating the same few notes over and over, accompanied by this horrible shrill beeping.

Footsteps at the front door, then it opens. "Guess who's back." a voice says. "Back again." The door closes. "Coco's back; tell a-" A number of heavy things are set down on the floor. "Yang? What happened?"


	25. Chapter 25

Ilia bows her head, sinking down on one knee. "What news do you bring us, child?" Fennec asks.

"She spoke briefly to her mother of hallucinations. And..." Ilia's skin turns to blue. _I'm sorry._ "She talked at length of a girl or woman named Yang. She said they were in love."

Fennec and Corsac exchange looks. "Indeed?" Fennec says. "It may be that Adam would want to hear this from you in person."

"He is in Mistral, isn't he?" Ilia says. "That's months away by boat."

"But much less time by Air Bus." Corsac says.

Ilia frowns. "Can the White Fang truly spare-"

"The White Fang is generous to those who have proven themselves of great use. You shall depart in the morning."

Ilia recognizes that she's being dismissed. She rises to her feet, but Corsac stops her as she is about to leave. "Where is your Scroll?" he asks.

She tenses. "I was unable to prevent my quarry from confiscating it." _Un_ willing _,_ her doubts whisper. _You still feel as if you owe her._

It's the brothers' turn to frown. "That is unfortunate." Fennec says. Ilia winces. Her skin turns yellow with fright. "With that information in the Belladonna's hands, they could prove even more troublesome..."

"Although," Corsac says after a tense few moments have passed. "It may be the proper motivation Miss Belladonna requires to abandon her retreat and return to the fight."

"And with a few arrangements..." The brothers look at one another again. "Yes." Fennec breathes. They turn back to Ilia. "You have done well Ilia. In all matters, including the loss of your Scroll. You may rest easy tonight. The journey ahead is long, but you will not travel alone."

* * *

Ilia enters the building, flanked by two fellow White Fang members. A tall slender woman blocks their path up the stairs. Her mouth splits apart horizontally when she speaks, like an insect or a crab. She's one of the Faunus who don't dare go out in public without something to cover up their animal attributes. "What business do you have here?" Her tone is hard but not confrontational.

"I bring word from Menagerie. I have been told to deliver it to Adam Taurus in person." Ilia says.

"What sort of word?" the woman asks.

"It's..." Ilia searches for the right word. "Personal."

"Taurus has no family in Menagerie." the woman says.

Ilia's skin turns red. She takes a step forward, but one of her compatriots interjects. "We have traveled for weeks to deliver this information. The Albain brothers themselves have vouched for her."

"And I am supposed to take your word for this?" the woman says.

"Of course not." Ilia's companion hands the woman an envelope.

The woman takes it, ripping it open with a knife. Ilia waits, trying to force her skin color to return to normal. It never works, but she still has to try.

The woman reads the letter slowly. When she finishes, she almost tears it to pieces, seemingly out of habit, before she stops herself. "I will take you to him." she says.

Ilia offers a smile to her companion. Their face is still covered by their mask, so she can't tell if they return it before they head off toward the kitchen. Her other companion, who's remained silent all this time, makes no attempt to leave.

The woman leads the two of them up the stairs, turning left at the top and knocking three times at the first door on the left. "Enter." someone says from inside.

The woman opens the door. There are two people in the room: one, a tall bald man with tentacles instead of arms. The tentacles are constantly in motion. At one point they split apart into several smaller tentacles, each writhing independently. The other person is seated in a large armchair. Only a hand is visible from the doorway. "What have you brought, Lucia?" the tall man says.

"From Menagerie." Lucia says. She nods to Ilia, who clears her throat before speaking.

"Ilia Amitola. I bring news of-"

"Ilia." the figure in the armchair says. Ilia immediately closes her mouth. "I remember that name." There's a gentle rustle of fabric. "Leave us."

"But sir, you haven't read the letter." Lucia says.

"I will. Leave us." the figure says again.

The tall man bows his head ever so slightly and leaves, Ilia's remaining companion as well as Lucia seemingly caught up in his wake. The door closes behind them. Ilia tries not to jump at the noise.

"You seem frightened." the figure says.

"We didn't- We didn't part under the best of circumstances." Ilia hopes her suddenly yellow skin will be concealed by the light of the fire crackling under the mantle.

"Perhaps not." the figure says. The hand motions her forward. She obeys. "I bear you no grudge. Blake was...not in her right mind then. She hasn't been for some time. I thought that by cutting old ties..." The voice trails away. The hand opens, palm facing up. Ilia places the letter in it.

He reads even more slowly than Lucia had. At least it seems that way to Ilia. The only clock in the room is on the wall behind them. Ilia doesn't dare turn to look, but she can hear it. _Tick...tick...tick..._

"The Albains have vouched for you." Adam says at last. He tosses the letter into the fire. "Well?"

The story tumbles out of her, burning her throat as it does. "I had a recording, but I...I lost the Scroll." she finishes. "I stand by what I said, every word of it-"

"I believe you." Adam says lowly. She closes her mouth again. He's speaking as if to himself. "I had them both at my mercy. I saw the look she gave. I should have **seen** it."

"Sir?" Ilia says.

"Leave me." Adam says abruptly.

She bows and hastens to obey. No sooner has her hand touched the handle of the door than he says, "You will not breathe a word of this to anyone. Do you understand?"

"Yes- Yes sir." she says. She hurries out of the room, turning to make sure the door is closed. When she turns around again, the tall man is there, staring down at her, tentacles writhing. He says nothing, and neither does she.

* * *

"Wait!" Jaune shouts. His quarry continues to ignore him. They turn a corner. He follows suit, hot on their heels, but when he turns the same corner they did, they're gone.

He surveys the alley, hands on his knees, panting for breath. "Dead end..." he wheezes. "So...what did-"

"Why do you ask what-"

"-when the delicious question is when?"

"Huh?" He looks over his shoulder. "How-"

"Another wrong question." the man says. He turns his head slightly toward his companion. "What is the old superstition?"

"They only get three." the woman replies. "He'd better choose wisely."

"Choice is always important." The man and the woman stare impassively at him.

Jaune has turned around by this point. He'd be the first to admit he's not the sharpest sword on the rack, but he gets the feeling these two would get the better of any of his current teammates. _Is this some kind of game they play? Well, whatever._ He straightens up. "Your hair. Are you...the parents...of Pyrrha...Pyrrha Nikos?" He's still short of breath. _Always a day late and a Lien short, that's me._

"Why in the world would you think that?" the man says.

The woman looks at her reflection in a nearby window. "It's more orange then red. Carrot, as opposed to crimson."

"Does he make a habit out of chasing down remotely redhaired strangers and asking them if they are someone's parents?"

"Hardly seems like a worthwhile use of one's time."

Jaune clenches his hands. "If you knew what she... What Pyrrha meant to me, you wouldn't say that."

"Then we shall ask _our_ second question." the woman says.

"What was she to you?"

Jaune winces. "Guess I should've seen that one coming... Uh..." He wracks his brain. He doesn't think there are words in any language on the planet to explain. There aren't words that would _fit_ her.

"You needn't answer immediately. We may meet again."

"It's a small world."

"Smaller than you might think."

"And it's a shame what they are going to have had done to her."

"I think we've finally gotten the hang of it."

"Jauuuune!"

He looks to his left. He only briefly sees a trail of rose petals before something bowls him over. "Ow! Hey!"

Ruby is burying her face in his chest. "Don't you _ever_ do that again!" she says ferociously.

"I- I'm sorry." he says. "I know how it must look. There were these two... These two people."

"Nora saw them." Ren says from somewhere above him.

"Their hair was almost as cool as mine!" Nora says from somewhere else. Probably close to Ren. "But...where'd they go?"

Jaune looks up. "They were right here." He tries to stand up, but Ruby is holding him too tight for that. He looks at Ren and Nora. "Did they walk past you or something?"

"There's not enough room!" Nora says. She steps to one side so Jaune can see how narrow the alleyway is.

"That's...odd." Jaune says for lack of a better word. He looks back at Ruby. "Uhh, Ruby?"

For a moment, he's not sure Ruby hears him. Then she raises her head. "I'm sorry." she says, her eyes glimmering with unspilled tears. "I saw that you were gone, and I thought the worst. Like-" She looks away as she gets to her feet.

Nora approaches, hand raised slightly. She seems about to put it on Ruby's shoulder but Jaune stops her. "This isn't really the place for a heart-to-heart." He stands up, gripping Ren's hand when he offers it. "Let's see if we can find a tavern or something. Someplace nice."

Ruby nods, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. They're all about to leave when she spots something on the ground. "What's this?" She bends down and picks it up. "It's a coin, but... I've never seen these kind of markings on one before."

"It's a good luck charm!" Nora says, sounding a little too excited to be natural. "It's like your friend is watching over you."

Ruby smiles wanly. "Yeah..."

* * *

"Taurus has sent another message." Watts says. "He wants to know what we are doing about that girl of his."

"He has resources of his own." the shadow says. "We cannot be expected to provide everything."

"Quite right, ma'am." Watts says. "He concludes by requesting a meeting with young Cinder." The curl of his lips as he says Cinder's name is audible.

"Cinder must not be seen to be weak. She is our..." The shadow pauses. Watts waits. " _Beacon_ , for a better world. Send Emerald instead."

"Emerald, ma'am?"

"Her Semblance may be useful in bringing the boy's temper to heel."

* * *

Three knocks upon the door.

"Enter."

The door opens. A slender dark-skinned woman is standing there, holding a body by its arm. The way the wrist is bent seems to imply she used the body's arm to knock instead of one of her own. She lets Lucia go and walks into the room casually. "Been a while Adam." she says. "Heard you've been a cut above the rest since Beacon."

"You possess both skill and nerve to walk in here and make it as far as you did." the tall man says. "I will enjoy stripping you of both." Emerald just looks at him as he starts to walk toward her.

Adam raises a hand. The tall man steps back into place. "I distinctly recall asking to meet with Cinder, not her underling."

"Cinder's busy. Nothing she couldn't tell you that I could." _It probably should be the other way around, but at least this way's more honest._

"I expect my instructions to be obeyed." Adam says. He gets up from his chair, gripping his sword by the scabbard.

"And you should." Emerald says, reigning in her instinct to take this bull by the horns. "The powers that be could've ignored you, but they sent me. As a token of good will. And maybe more." She leans forward suggestively.

The tall man looks at Adam. Adam turns his face toward the tall man. His mask, as usual, is giving nothing away.

The tall man gets the hint. "I will attempt to clean up the mess." he says.

"Wish you luck pal." Emerald says. She winks at him as he closes the door.

When Adam looks back to her, Emerald is sitting on the footrest, as if waiting for him to sit down as well. He doesn't. "So why am I here?" Emerald asks after a while.

Adam moves past her to stare into the fire. "She was in love." he says simply. "But not with me. With that other girl."

"The bimbo?" Emerald snorts. "Yeah. I could've told you that."

"Yet you didn't."

Emerald shimmies around in her seat. "I had faith in your efforts to be creepy and stalkerish and find out everything you could about where she'd been since you last saw her. Where she'd been, what she'd been doing, _who_ she'd been doing..."

"Enough!" Adam snaps. He unsheathes his sword in the blink of an eye. Emerald finds it at her neck.

"You need us." she says. She's had practice concealing her fear.

"Do I?" he asks. The blade digs into her skin.

She swallows. _This is not the time or the place to get turned on._ "Yeah. You do." She pushes the blade away with two fingers. "But someday, you won't. You'll be in a position to remember everyone who ever helped you, and deal with them accordingly."

Adam says nothing. Eventually he sheathes his sword. "What help do you propose to give me?" he asks.

Emerald closes her eyes. She makes a figure appear in the chair behind her.

"Adam?" 'Blake' says. Emerald hopes she's gotten her voice right.

Her hopes are rewarded by the sudden intensity in Adam's voice. "Blake?"

"I'm sorry." 'Blake' says. She starts to cry. _Adam's the kind of guy who'd enjoy that_ , Emerald thinks. "I never should've left."

Adam nearly bowls Emerald over in his haste to get to the chair. "You shouldn't have," he agrees, not seeing or not caring that the image flickers a little as Emerald hits the floor. "But that's all behind us now."

For the first time in her life, Emerald finds herself wishing Mercury was here, if only so she could pretend to gag at him.

* * *

Weiss crumples up yet another sheet of paper. "What's the point?" she groans. "Even if I worked up the nerve to try and send it, I'm sure Father's having all my mail read anyway." She places the crumpled ball of paper into the trashbin. It's almost full. "I don't even know where she is." she says, putting her head in her hands. "Patch is a tiny little island. The only thing of note seems to be Signal Academy." She gets up and paces back and forth in front of her desk. "I could have sent it there, but again, Father's having my mail read." She puts her hands on her hips and addresses a corner of the room as if it's Ruby. "This is all your fault, you know. I'd never talked to myself out loud before I met you."

"Give yourself a break, Weiss." she imagines Ruby saying. "You're just letting off steam."

She huffs. "I'm an ice queen, according to your ludicrous sister. Ice doesn't steam."

Her imaginary Ruby has an all-too-familiar expression on her face. "It might, when I _tickle_ it!"

The imaginary Ruby lunges forward, fingers at the ready. In her mind's eye, Weiss can imagine herself falling backward trying to fend her team leader off. But Ruby's Semblance would be too much, and sooner or later Weiss's guard would slip. She would try to muffle her shrieks of laughter until Ruby would hit that spot beneath her ribs on her right side. Then she would scream so loud she'd be afraid of hurting Ruby's ears. But Ruby would keep right on tickling her, and laughing, until they were both out of breath, too out of breath to stop their lips from meeting as Ruby fell down on top of her...

Weiss blinks. The room's gotten darker. "How long have I been daydreaming?" she wonders. She looks over at the clock on her nightstand, and grimaces. "Too long." She goes over to the music stand in the center of the room. "Time to get back to work."

* * *

"He got reaaaally into it." Emerald tells Cinder the next time she sees her, some weeks later. "Like I lost concentration for a moment when I remembered my neck was still bleeding, and he just kept trying to make out with her."

Cinder almost smiles. Emerald does. Anything for her. Everything, for her.

"Sssso, uhh..." She licks her lips. "That thing I said, about getting... Well, getting...getting turned on by his sword, like, right here..." She knows she should quit while she's ahead; Cinder's mood swings have always been unpredictable; but she had had a lot of time to herself on the way to Mistral and back. Time to think, and do other things. "Does that...do anything for you?"

Cinder narrows her eye. Emerald flinches. Sure enough, Cinder slaps her across the face. "I'm sorry," Emerald apologizes automatically. But whatever words might have followed are choked off by Cinder's hand around her throat. _I'm sorry,_ she tries to say again. _Sorry for how my body's reacting to this..._

Cinder leans in close. Her grip doesn't falter. "'Sorry,'" she groans, in a weak approximation of her old voice that still sends shivers down Emerald's spine. "Sorry isn't...good...enough."

In an instant Emerald's flat on her back, rubbing her throat and watching as her mistress tries to disrobe herself with one arm. She falters. Emerald once again forgets her place, rushing forward to help. "Let me," she says. "I think... I think I got it..."

Cinder slaps her across the face again, then lays down upon her bed, motioning for Emerald to join her. "Don't think," Emerald imagines her mistress saying, like in the old days. "Obey."

She obeys as Cinder presses Emerald's head between her legs. She obeys as Cinder wordlessly urges her on. She obeys, thinking nothing of her own pleasure.

Everything, for her.


	26. Chapter 26

The next thing Yang knows, she's shaking. Not shivering from cold, but a full-body tremble that comes and goes at its own whim.

She opens her eyes. She's still on the couch, although lying down instead of sitting up. Coco's in the armchair in front of her and to the right of the couch as a whole. She's reading a book, but it's too dark for Yang to make out the title. She starts shaking again.

Coco looks up. "Yang?" she says, her voice low and husky and suddenly exactly what Yang needs to hear right now. "How are you doing?"

"I don't know," Yang rasps. "What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

Yang shakes her head very slightly.

"Okay." Coco puts her book down. "It sounds like you had another blackout. A more accurate term would be 'losing time'. It seems to be reasonably common in people who suffer from PTSD, among other things."

Yang frowns. "The...the last thing I remember, I was watching TV, and I saw-" She sees him, glowing red all over, and she's shaking again. "-something. Then I heard you at the door and..." She shrugs her shoulders helplessly and tries to sit up.

"Easy." Coco says. Yang doesn't need to be told twice. "You've been sleeping for a while. We talked after I got back; do you remember any of that?"

"No." Yang says. She's tired of not knowing, or not remembering, things.

"You mentioned a name, said you saw them on TV. I wanted to go get Velvet, but you said you didn't want to be alone again. So I've been waiting here with you since then."

"How long...?"

"A couple hours. I haven't been keeping track. Got plenty to do." She taps her book gently.

Yang gives up and sinks back down into the cushions. "Does dad know?"

"He knows. He's been in to see you, just like everyone else."

"Zwei too?"

"Zwei too." Coco says with a smile.

"What about Neo?" Yang asks, starting to shake once more.

"Oh, I forgot. Haven't seen her. Not like that rules anything out. Velvet says her Semblance is illusions?" Yang nods. "So she could've been around." It's Coco's turn to frown. "You know every time you've had something like this happen, at least so far as I know, she just disappears? Think there's something up with that?"

"I think she has problems dealing with people. She uses her Semblance to 'talk' when it's just the two of us, but I haven't heard anything like that around anyone else, except when she had Roman yell at me." Yang suddenly has a suspicion, but she doesn't give voice to it. It's not the sort of thing one should say unless one is sure.

"And you're sure..." Coco trails off, clearly uncomfortable finishing the sentence.

"I'm sure it's real." Yang says. "Sure as I can be."

"Well, it's not really real if she's using her Semblance, but yeah I know what you mean." Coco says. She stands up and walks over to the small shelf of books beneath the window to the right of the door. There are several bags in front of the shelf. Yang wonders how much Coco had checked out of the library at Signal, or if she'd even bothered. Given that Taiyang works there, she could have easily bluffed her way out of having to register for a library card she'd probably never use again. "I was gonna show this to you right after I got back, but things happened." Coco looks over her shoulder. "Things that I do not blame you for. You get me?"

Yang nods wordlessly. She is trying very hard not to look at a certain part of Coco's anatomy as the older girl bends over the bags. _Not that she'd_ mind _, but..._

"Here we go." Coco says. She takes out a long white box and sets it down on Yang's chest.

Yang squints. The only identifying mark is the Atlas symbol on the lid. "What is it?" she asks.

"Hell if I know." Coco says bluntly. "Told 'em at the school I was staying with Taiyang Xiao Long, and they had me wait like fifteen minutes before they brought this back. Wouldn't tell me what was in it. I don't think even they know."

"I do."

Coco and Yang look up. Taiyang stands in the doorway to the kitchen.

"Dad-" Yang says. Her eyes start to fill with tears.

He holds up a hand. "We can talk about what happened earlier some other time. Right now, I just wanna see your reaction to this."

"What is it?" she asks again.

"It's a surprise." he says with a chuckle.

Yang sighs and holds the box steady with her stump while she removes the lid.

Coco turns on the overhead light. Yang's eyes, completely unprepared, are blinded for a long long time. In the moment before she has to close them, she sees a familiar shape inside the box. _Is this_ _some kind of sick joke?_ Unable to wait, she runs her remaining fingers along the smooth metal contours. "Is this-"

"Brand new, state of the art Atlas tech. You know, I thought I was gonna have to pull some strings, call in a few favors, but you earned this one all on your own, kiddo."

Yang looks in the direction of her father's voice. "Huh?"

"Before I could even talk to him, General Ironwood already had one of his top scientists working on this, for you. He wanted me to tell you that you fought admirably. You should be proud of yourself."

"...right..." Yang's eyes are starting to clear now. As she looks down at the cold metal arm that so many people must have worked so hard on for her, she wonders if she's supposed to feel something.

"Well? You going to try it on?" Taiyang asks.

Coco looks at him. "It's a big adjustment. Give her some time to think about it." she says coolly.

"I uh... I'm not feeling too great right now. Maybe later?" Yang says. She puts the lid back on the box as best as she can.

"Well, alright." Taiyang scratches the back of his neck.

Yang puts her feet to the floor and waits for her heartrate to settle down again. "I need to go say 'I'm sorry' to Velvet. Anyone know where she is?"

"She's washing up before dinner." Coco says. "I'll let her know you want to talk to her. You should go lie down."

"Yeah." Yang can't think of anything better to do, so she agrees and makes her way up the stairs.

* * *

Someone knocks on the door a little while later. Yang has to get up to open it. Her voice seems to be going fast. Neo tilts her head to one side, her brow wrinkled.

Yang opens her mouth to try to say something but nothing comes out. She grimaces and makes her way to her desk. She's already picked up a pen when she remembers she can't write. "Hold on." she manages to say, and even then only when Neo is almost pressing her ear to Yang's mouth.

Yang rummages through her piles of stuff before she finds her Scroll. The screen is covered with dust, and it doesn't turn on when she presses the power button. She has to rummage through her stuff again to find the charger cable. She plugs it in, tapping her fingers against the side impatiently while it goes through the startup sequence. Finally she opens a blank document and slowly types, "I had another blackout. I'm doing better."

Neo writes in the air with her own shimmery pink font. _What happened?_

Yang closes her eyes and tries to empty her mind. "I saw Adam. Blake's ex. He was there, at Beacon. He-" She pauses. "-hurt her. He did this to me." Yang raises her stump.

In the time it takes her to type that out, a hundred images and sounds run in circles inside her head. _"Get AWAY from her!" That sound Blake had made when the sword entered her stomach. The sound of his sword as it came closer. Blake's face through the window when she had first seen Yang. Her fear. Not just then, but always._

 _He's here?_ Neo writes, before she grimaces and erases her words. _On the TV, right?_

Yang nods.

 _Who is he?_

"He's with the White Fang." Yang types. "He's probably a long way from here. Just like her."

 _White Fang._ Neo frowns. _Horns?_

"I think so. You know him?"

 _No. Heard him talk once. Good speaker._

"You were at a rally? Are you a Faunus too?"

Neo shakes her head. _I could be, if you want. Sort of._ Yang glares at her. _It was an underground thing. Roman had to go to them a lot. For 'solidarity'. No one else could be spared._

"Oh." Yang types. Then she types the first thing that comes into her mind, because just typing 'oh' seems kind of pointless by itself. "What was Roman like?"

Neo shakes her head again. _You don't talk about babe in black, I don't talk about Roman._

"He was your boyfriend?"

Neo makes a face. _NO,_ she writes emphatically.

"All right, all right." Yang sighs, then winces and rubs her throat. "I need to go. Coco told Velvet I wanted to talk to her." she types.

Neo turns to watch Yang go. _Do you?_ she writes directly in front of Yang's face.

Yang takes a step back. "Yeah." she types, holding her Scroll up for Neo to read. "We can talk more later." She makes one set of air quotes with her fingers, tucking her Scroll under the stump of her other arm. _Talk._ It's the best she can do.

Neo nods. Yang makes a point of waiting by the door until Neo takes the hint and gets to her feet as well. She tries to kiss Yang on the cheek as she passes. Yang manages to fend her off.

* * *

Yang knocks on the bathroom door. "Just a minute!" Velvet says, in an odd sort of voice.

Yang frowns. She leans against the wall while she waits.

A little while later, the door opens. Coco sticks her head out. Her glasses are gone, her beret is crooked, and her hair is dripping. "Yang." She smiles. "Could you be a doll and get Yatsuhashi to bring up my travel pack? I need a new set of clothes."

There's a suspicious slapping sound from inside the bathroom. Coco yelps and shoots a look over her shoulder. Velvet giggles.

Yang turns a furious shade of red. "Seriously guys?" she mutters.

"You gotta do who you gotta do." Velvet says.

Coco's eyes darken. "Bag. Yatsu. Clothes. Please?"

"Okay." Yang says.

"Thanks. Love you!" Coco blows a kiss and hastily shuts the door.

Yang doesn't stick around to hear the giggling resume. She makes her way down the stairs slowly, already typing what she wants to say to Yatsuhashi on her Scroll.

* * *

He grunts in acknowledgment.

"That's it?" Yang types. "You don't have any questions?"

"No." Yatsuhashi says.

Fox comes over to join them. "What is it?"

"Coco joined Velvet in the shower." Yatsuhashi says before Yang has a chance to type anything.

Fox nods solemnly. "Then I guess we know what we'll be doing tonight."

Yatsuhashi grunts again.

Yang looks between the two. "You're all-" she types and shows it to Yatsuhashi.

"Yes."

"'Yes'?" Fox asks.

"Her voice seems to be going. She asked 'the question' on her Scroll." Yatsuhashi tells him.

"Ahh" is all Fox has to say.

Yatsuhashi picks up Coco's bag and walks Yang back inside the house. "How'd it start?" she asks him with her Scroll.

Yatsuhashi considers her question. "It's a long story." he says. "It wouldn't be fair to answer without them all here."

Yang wants to say 'oh' but she'd feel silly just typing two letters on her Scroll. Instead she nods.

Yatsuhashi nods in return and heads upstairs.

* * *

Yang skips dinner, despite Velvet's protests. "You only had a banana today!" she said. Having all of CFVY in the same room suddenly makes Yang uncomfortable.

 _Am I being prejudiced?_ she asks herself. _Just because they're in a polyamorous relationship doesn't mean they're gonna start doing...it right in front of me._

Velvet comes to visit her outside. Yang is sitting on the edge of the porch with Zwei in her lap. She'd thought she hugged him a little too tight earlier, but when she let go, he'd kept right on panting.

"Are you okay?" Velvet asks quietly.

"I think so." Yang says. "It just feels weird, you know?"

"You mean the four of us?" Velvet says. "It took a little getting used to." She sits down next to Yang. "Did you and Blake ever...?"

Yang shakes her head. "We weren't ready." she says.

"That's right. I keep forgetting how young you all were." Velvet reaches out a hand. Yang nods, and Velvet rubs Zwei in between his ears. He wags his tail.

"I'm guessing this means you won't be comfortable with snuggling in the future?" Velvet asks suddenly.

"I don't know." Yang says. "I hadn't thought about it. Should I?"

"Not on my account." Velvet says. "But...we're all sort of used to people feeling uncomfortable once they find out."

"Look, however I feel about it is my fault." Yang says. "Right? I mean, you haven't changed from the people I met...however many days ago."

"Not everything is your fault Yang!" Velvet says. "It's not like society goes out of its way to talk about us."

"Society's to blame, huh?" Yang looks up at the stars. "Actually that kinda works."

After a while she gets to her feet. "My legs are getting stiff." she says by way of explanation. "Walk around the house with me?"

Velvet agrees and they set off, Zwei at their feet. "This morning you said...something about Neo...doing...something?" Velvet ventures.

Yang blushes. "It- I-" She tries to focus. "The day I blacked out, I woke up, got out of bed, and she was waiting there in the hallway." She recounts the events that followed, grateful that the darkness is concealing her face.

"That's sexual assault!" Velvet gasps. "You should tell your dad!"

"What am I gonna say? 'This little girl barely two-thirds my height pinned me up against a wall and I think I liked it?' She didn't even touch me, really. I touched her..."

"But she _made_ you!"

"I said I think I liked it."

"You're not responsible for how your body reacts." Velvet says firmly. "If you don't tell him, I will."

"Please don't." Yang says. "I don't want to get her in trouble. She seems really lonely."

"Her actions need to have consequences! She has to know she can't get away with whatever she wants any more!"

"I'll tell her to stop, all right?" Yang says, more harshly than she intended. Her throat hurts afterwards.

They're back at the front door. Velvet sighs. "I know you care about her Yang. And I think she cares about you. But that doesn't mean she can't still hurt you."

"Like me and Blake." Yang admits.

Velvet puts a hand on Yang's arm. "Are you ready to talk about her?"

Under the porchlight, Yang shakes her head. She points to her throat.

"Oh," Velvet says. "Okay." She gives Yang a smile. "Whenever you're ready then?"

Yang nods reluctantly.

* * *

She knocks on the door to the guestroom. Neo opens it, looking for all the world like she's still wearing her outfit from the train. The pink-haired girl lunges forward, wrapping her arms around Yang and, perhaps more than coincidentally, burying her face in the taller girl's cleavage.

"No." Yang croaks. She tries pushing Neo away, which is easier said than done given that she only has one arm and it's currently busy holding her Scroll. "Let go." She feels the other girl stiffen before she pulls away. She looks up at Yang, mismatched eyes glistening with what must be crocodile tears. Yang is about to start talking but she can already tell the words would be horribly jumbled up. Instead she holds up her Scroll for Neo to see.

 _We can't keep doing this,_ it reads, Yang having typed this shortly before knocking. _What happened the other day made me really uncomfortable. Please don't do it again._

"But-" Neo starts to say in Blake's voice.

Yang's stomach lurches. "You want to get on my good side? Stop impersonating my ex-girlfriend."

Neo frowns and stamps her foot. The tears have started dripping down her face. _She must really think this is going to work,_ Yang thinks. Neo opens her mouth and starts forming words with her lips. Of course no sound comes out.

"Can you write it down?" Yang asks wearily.

Neo shakes her head. She clenches her hands into fists and closes her eyes. Things start flickering around them. She does too for a moment; her illusion of poise and charm disappearing, along with her old clothes, to reveal the real Neo, still wearing Ruby's Slayer outfit, crouching down on the floor with her arms over her head.

By the time Yang reaches out on impulse, the illusion is back and she sees herself about to touch Neo in a very inappropriate way. Yang snatches her hand back. Suddenly she remembers her suspicion from several hours before. "Are you autistic?" she asks as kindly as she can given her fluctuating vocal capacity.

Neo's other form shatters again, and the real one looks up. Her right eye is pink and her left one is brown. Both of them are rimmed with red. _She really was crying,_ Yang realizes. But the other girl doesn't answer. "It's okay." Yang says. She holds out her hand, her Scroll tucked into a pocket. The girl flinches away, and Yang's heart hurts. She crouches down beside Neo. "No more of...that." Yang says. "The touchy-feely stuff. You know?" Neo nods, still watching her warily. "Just friends. Friends who don't try and kill each other." Yang holds out her hand again. "Okay?"

Neo looks at it, and then back at Yang. An unreadable expression flickers across the pink-haired girl's face. Then she reaches out and places a trembling hand in Yang's, and everything seems like it's going to be all right.


	27. Chapter 27

_Beep._

 _Beep._

Blake stirs.

 _Beep._

 _Beep._

She opens her eyes. _Where am I?_ she thinks dazedly.

There's a ceiling above her. It's soft and cream-colored. She looks to the left without moving her head. The machine there is what's doing the beeping. There are cords coming out of it. As she follows them with her gaze, she realizes that she is connected to it. To her right is an IV stand dispensing a clear liquid into her veins.

But there's no one with her in the room.

"Hello?" she asks anyway.

No one responds. Not even a voice inside her head.

She lets her head sag back against the pillow and closes her eyes. _How did I get here?_ she asks. _Last thing I remember, I was... I was on that rooftop fighting Ilia. Did she-_ A surge of energy rushes through her as she remembers what the spy had made off with. _They know about Yang._

She tries to will herself to sit up. It doesn't happen. The adrenaline leaves as quickly as it had come, in its place a growing dread. She looks around. There's a button on the side of her bed marked 'Call Nurse'. She presses it. A short while later a man in a white uniform arrives. "What's the trouble?" he asks, calmly but with the capacity for urgency somehow implied.

"I need to leave. I need to get _out_ of here."

The man relaxes somewhat. "You're hours out of surgery." he tells her. "You won't be going anywhere for at least a few days."

"My Aura-"

"Your Aura is still below ten percent. Your body is doing all it can. You need to rest."

"I don't have time to rest. She's in danger."

"Who's in danger?"

She looks away. "...never mind." She sighs. "Could you get my parents?"

"They're in the cafeteria. It's a few floors down. I'll page someone to notify them you're awake." He starts asking questions about how she feels. She doesn't feel like answering them.

Blake stares at the wall. _"I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."_ she hears him say. _"Starting with her."_

* * *

When her parents arrive, she can barely stop herself from breaking down. "They know," she whispers. "They know about me and Yang."

Her mother puts a hand on hers. Blake can tell she wants to hug her, but the number of things attached to her make that unlikely. "No matter who that spy reports to," Kali says. "It'll take time for them to get anything out of Menagerie. Who knows? We might be able to find them before they do."

"I shouldn't have told you." Blake says. She wipes a tear away.

Kali and Ghira exchange glances. "But you did." Kali says. "And... You sounded like you really loved her." She squeezes Blake's hand gently. "So why did you leave?"

It takes Blake ages to tell her story, about the time she spent at Beacon, and her memories there. Good and bad.

"Every moment I spend near her is another moment she's in danger." Blake finishes. "I thought... at least this way I could keep him far away from her." She clenches her hands. "But now he _knows_. He knows, about _us_. And he'll never stop hunting her. Or me."

Her mother and father carefully embrace her as she fights back sobs.

Ghira clears his throat. "He may...have other priorities."

"Ghira!" Kali says sharply.

"Blake has a right to know." he says. He looks at Blake. "We found messages on that Scroll you had with you. He's planning to overthrow the leader of the White Fang, and stage a full-scale attack on Haven Academy."

"Of course he is." Blake says bitterly. "He's never satisfied with anything he has." Her shoulders slump. "But what can I do? I'm just one person, and I'm cooped up in bed..."

"This is precisely why I didn't want your father telling you." Kali says, glaring at her husband. "You have too much on your mind as it is."

"If I'd kept it from her, she'd have been furious." Ghira says. "I don't... I don't want that to happen again."

"I'm sorry." Blake says. Tears begin to flow once again. "I just keep messing everything up."

Her parents, after one more tense exchange of glances, put their argument aside and do their best to console her.

* * *

Several weeks later, Blake thinks she's ready to go. She's had time aplenty to rest and think about what she should do. Her twice-wounded stomach seems to have healed as much as it can, but the same might not be said for her mind.

"Your mother and I went through something very similar the first time we went into battle." Ghira tells her. "Our superiors told us to seek counseling. The counselor-" He breaks off, frowning in thought. "Psychiatrist? Psychologist?" He shakes his head. "It was one of those. They said we had post-traumatic stress disorder. We were angry, we were scared, we got overwhelmed when someone so much as slammed a door."

For once, Blake doesn't have it in her to be angry. "What am I supposed to do?" she asks. "I can't stay here and put you in danger while I get 'counseling'. I have to stop him."

"Honey," Kali says gently. "You're not ready. From the things you've been telling us, you were seeing him _weeks_ after the fall of Beacon, when he wasn't even there. Do you think meeting him face-to-face would go any differently this time around?"

Suddenly Blake _does_ have it in her again. "I know that!" she shouts. She kicks the table. Her parents jump. "But what choice do I _have_? You've got contacts in Mistral, right? You could- You could help me-"

"You always have a choice Blake. And you have one now. You're just too afraid to see it." Kali says.

Blake's stomach clenches. "Yang wouldn't want me back. Not after... Not after everything that's already happened to her."

"You won't know unless you try." Ghira says. Blake doesn't say anything. Ghira sighs. "It's up to you Blake. Your mother and I want what's best for you. Whatever you think that is."

* * *

She stands on the docks as the other passengers board the ship. "I'll see you soon," she tells them. "Much sooner than last time."

Ghira tries to smile. "We have to stay here and clean things up, at least for a while. The Albains are still on the loose, and one stolen Scroll isn't going to be enough to bring them down. But your mother will meet you in Mistral."

Kali rubs her daughter's back. "It'll be good to get out in the field again." she says.

Blake smiles at her. Then she hugs them one last time. "I love you." she tells them, kissing them each on their forehead.

"We love you too," they both say, even with tears flooding down their cheeks.

The ship's horn blows. Blake lets go of her parents, and hurries onboard.


	28. Chapter 28

The room lights up for a moment, and shortly thereafter starts to fill with a rumble. "That was a close one." Yang says to the figure on her lap.

Zwei raises one ear. Yang lets the blinds fall back into place and reaches down to rub his back. She'd gotten over her fear of thunderstorms many years ago for Ruby's sake, but Zwei never seemed to mind them at all.

 **Crash!** The power goes out at the same time as the thunder and lightning arrive. Yang jumps. She closes her eyes, tries to regulate her breathing, and listens to the rain coming down outside.

A few minutes pass, then she hears the front door slam. "Generator's dead." Taiyang announces. Yang gets up from the windowsill and hurries downstairs. Coco, Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi are already there, Velvet giving Yang a smile that's only barely revealed by the flashlight she holds in her hands. "Looks like it might've taken a direct hit." Taiyang is saying. "We'll have to send someone to Signal to let 'em know."

"Velvet can go." Coco says. "She won't need any help seeing in the dark."

"Neither would I." Fox says.

Yang is pretty sure Coco sticks her tongue out at him.

Thunder suddenly rumbles, a long way off despite the rain that still pelts the roof and the windows.

"Yang?" Taiyang asks.

Yang points to herself, confused.

"It'd be good for you to get out of the house. You've been cooped up inside since, well...since last week." her father says.

Yang shrugs. She looks at Velvet. "Two's better than one." Velvet says. Yang isn't sure about that. Velvet smiles again. Yang tries to return it.

"Any objections?" Taiyang waits. No one says anything. "All right. You might wanna take your Scrolls in case you get into trouble. The woods have been quiet these last few months, but who knows how long that's going to last."

Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi return to the couch, taking Velvet's proffered flashlight with them. They're using a deck of Tarot cards to play poker. Yang has no idea how it's supposed to work, but she has a sneaking suspicion it's strip poker, so the rules may not be that big a deal. She steps closer to Velvet to whisper in her ear. "I'm going to say goodbye to Neo." she says. Velvet nods in affirmation.

Yang climbs the stairs slowly, careful not to trip or lose her balance. Lightning flares as she raises her hand to knock on the guest room door. She waits for the sound of the thunder to dissipate, and knocks very gently. There's no noise from inside. Not that she expects any.

She opens the door. "Neo?" she says.

There's a lump under the blankets. Yang sits down beside it. "Neo," she says. "I'm going to Signal with Velvet. The power went out; dad thinks the generator might've been hit. Are you going to be okay if I leave?"

A hand shoots out. Yang puts her own hand near it, and Neo latches on.

"Is that a no?" Yang asks.

The lump moves in the same way Yang thinks it might if Neo shook her head.

"That doesn't help." Yang says, hoping her smile carries through to her voice.

Lightning flashes. The lump trembles.

"Neo, I've gotta go." Yang says. "I'll be back before you know it." She gets to her feet, but pauses in the doorway. "If you- if you need help sleeping, you can take- You can take one of the pills in the bottle on my nightstand. Just one though, right?"

Neo pokes her head out. Her pink-and-brown hair is suitably disheveled. She nods quickly, and Yang smiles.

"I'll see you when I get back." she says, and closes the door.

Yang heads for the stairs. Suddenly she trips. She looks down at the same time that lightning flashes again. Zwei is sitting by her feet. "You really have to watch where you park those hips boy." she says, her words nearly drowned out by the thunder above.

He flattens his ears and whines.

She rolls her eyes, but grabs him around the aforementioned hips and rubs his belly with her stump. He doesn't seem to mind, which makes one of them. "Are you going to behave while I'm gone?" she asks. He licks her face. "I'll take that as a no." she says with a laugh.

Velvet's holding a normal umbrella in her hand and adjusting a poncho with her other by the time Yang comes back downstairs. "Everything okay?" she asks.

Yang nods. _As okay as it's gonna be,_ she thinks.

Thunder rumbles. "Alright then." Velvet says. She opens the door. "Signal, here we come!"

* * *

They walk through the woods in silence, Yang taking out her Scroll from time to time to make sure they're heading the right way. The rain continues to pour. Yang looks at Velvet. She seems miserable but determined, holding her umbrella well above her head and her Faunus ears. _It must be uncomfortable holding it like that,_ Yang thinks, but she doesn't say it out loud.

Velvet catches Yang looking and smiles. Yang turns away. "Yang..." she hears Velvet say a moment later. "I know we haven't talked much lately. I just want you to know we're all still here for you. Whenever you're ready."

Yang closes her eyes. She wishes she could thank Velvet.

They walk on through the wind and the rain and the intermittent but severe thunder and lightning until they find themselves in the entrance hall of Signal. The lights are still on, and there's a line of people at the front desk. "Guess we weren't the only ones who lost power." Velvet says as she and Yang take their place at the back of the line. "Didn't Ruby use to go to school here?" she asks, looking around. "I wonder if we'll run into any of her friends."

Yang nods again. _They're probably asleep by now. At least they ought to be._ Three familiar figures come out of a side passage, and Yang frowns. She holds a finger up to Velvet and runs after them. "Well well well," she says hoarsely as soon as she thinks she's within earshot. "Been a while Junior."

Hei 'Junior' Xiong and his two henchwomen turn. "It sure has," he says coolly. "Blondie."

"What are you doing? Don't you have a sleazy little nightclub to run?" Yang says.

Junior waves a hand. "The club can look after itself for one night." he says. "And it's not little. I'm here to ask the headmistress if she has any Huntsmen or Huntresses in training she can spare. The teams at Beacon are doing their job, I guess, but the rest of the city's on its own. Seems like every day the Grimm are pushing their luck further and further."

"You want to send kids into urban warfare? I knew you were a cold SOB Junior, but this is a new low even for you."

"It's not urban warfare, Blondie. They'll be out there with the guards, and whatever dregs Beacon can spare. Like those guys that lost in the doubles round. C, R, D, L...?"

"Cardinal." one of the Malachite twins says. Yang can never tell them apart. One kicks, one claws; that's all she needed to know once upon a time.

"That's it. It'll be good training for 'em. And I might see fit to...reimburse the Academies if things work out. Or, heck, even if they don't."

"My point still stands. They're _kids_!" Yang protests.

"So was your sister, until she got promoted. Desperate times and desperate measures." Junior says.

"It can't be _that_ bad out there." Yang can hardly believe what she's saying. _I mean look at ME._

One of the twins changes the subject. "Hey boss," the girl says. "What do you call a sunny little dragon who lost a limb?"

"I don't know Melanie." Junior says, with an air of affected ease that tells Yang they must've rehearsed this beforehand. "What _do_ you call a sunny little dragon who lost a limb?"

Yang doesn't know how they learned of her father's nickname for her. Maybe it's just a coincidence. She clenches her hand into a fist, trying to summon up her Semblance, but Melanie's next words cut her to the quick.

"'armless."

Junior and the twins laugh uproariously. Yang just stands there dumbly.

"Wait wait, I got one! All left! Cause she's the only one of her team that's left! And she's only got her left arm!" Junior cackles.

"It's not as funny if you have to explain it." the other twin says.

"Blondie explains hers all the time." Junior says defensively.

"Point proven." Melanie says.

"That's it." Yang snaps. She points at Melanie. "You, me, training room, now."

Melanie scoffs. "It wouldn't be much of a fight. Word around town is you've hardly left the house since Beacon."

"And you look a little out of shape." the other twin says. "Have you been eating okay?"

"It doesn't matter." Yang says. "How about it?" She beckons to Melanie, who looks sidelong at her boss. "I guess it's true: you can't spell Melanie without 'mean lie'." It had sounded better in her head.

Junior raises his hands. "Don't blame me if you end up losing a leg too. You know how Melanie likes things."

"Hmph" is all Melanie has to say.

Yang leads them to the closest training room. It uses similar technology to what she remembers from Amity Colosseum: reinforced floors, walls and ceiling, and a set of controls in a shielded booth that probably change the environment. "You need a password for this," Yang says, resting a hand on the console. "But I won't need any tricks or special terrain to beat you." She likes how confident she sounds. She wishes she could feel it too.

The other twin is the one to scoff this time. "Yeah, cause you're a basic b-"

"Miltia!" Junior says.

Miltia blushes a little. "Sorry boss."

"It's like I always say: you bring the sugar, Melanie brings the spice. And she's feeling spicy tonight!" Junior shuts the door to the control booth as Melanie and Yang step out into the center of the room.

Yang gets into her usual position before she realizes it doesn't work as well with only one arm. "Think fast." she mutters under her breath.

"You're talking to yourself now?" Melanie laughs. "This'll be even less of a fight!"

"I wouldn't be sure about that." Yang says, rolling her neck from side to side and trying not to wince. "I bet Neo talks to herself all the time with her Semblance, and she could kick both our butts from here to Atlas."

Melanie frowns. "Who?" she tries to say.

Yang shakes her head. "Don't bother pretending. I can tell by your body language you know exactly who I'm talking about."

Melanie looks down at herself. "So what?" she says after a moment.

"She's staying at my house right now. She's my friend." Yang lets her eyes go wide. "Can you _imagine_ how she'll react if you actually manage to hurt me?" The old her wouldn't have stooped this low, but she's been dead a long time.

Melanie glares. "I'm going to do way more than hurt you." She kicks the air faster than Yang is used to seeing these days. "I'm going to make you _bow_. To me, and my boss, and my sister, and-"

"Yeah yeah. Talk is cheap." Yang stands with her right side facing her opponent. "Put your money where your mouth is."

Melanie lunges forward with a kick aimed at Yang's ribs. To their joint surprise, Yang manages to block it. "You can do better than that." Yang chides her.

"Of course." Melanie flips her hair over her shoulder. "I wanted to see if you still could."

Yang feels something give inside her brain, like a lock that just had its key used on it. _Let go,_ something is telling her. She shakes her head and barely manages to catch Melanie's next kick with her one remaining arm. She tries to give her a spin the way she had with Neo, but Melanie rolls with it, using her other leg to hit Yang in the face. Yang staggers back. "Did you like that?" Melanie asks gleefully. "You should; it's the move you used on me last year."

 _Let_ **go** _._ Another lock opens.

Yang is swaying on her feet. "You sure know how to hold a grudge." she mumbles.

"Thank you." Melanie offers a curtsy. "But let's wrap up this little pity party, shall we?"

She hits Yang nine times in less than two seconds. First, a kick with her left leg to Yang's shoulder; then, as Yang is only starting to reel, Melanie brings that leg back in for a swipe to Yang's other shoulder. Next, a scything kick to the face with her right leg led by her heel, followed by a harder one from her left, an exuberant twirling kick backed up by a low sweep, and, before her victim has time to hit the floor, she brings her left heel down hard into Yang's chest. Then she turns, planting her toe under Yang's body and hoisting her violently into the air before kicking her higher with her other leg. "It's over." Melanie declares in midair.

Somehow they both land on their feet, though Yang has to use her arm to catch herself from falling to her knees. Her heart is hammering at her ribs. She wipes blood away from a nasty cut on her face. That voice keeps saying **let go**. _Let go of what?_ she thinks in a daze. _I don't have anything left. No Aura, no Ember Celica-_

Suddenly she knows.

 **Let go.**

 **Click.**

"Did you like the show boss?" Melanie says, blowing him a kiss. "That counts as a bow, right?"

Junior doesn't answer. He's staring at something over Melanie's shoulder.

Melanie turns.

Yang straightens up. Her hair is on fire. Not glowing like it does with her Semblance. It _burns_. She looks up. Melanie takes a step back.

"Your eyes." she says. "They're...they're _blank_."

Yang looks up further towards the ceiling. She roars. Not a scream, but a roar. All of her anger and helplessness from the past several months comes rushing out of her. The air fills with fire. The floor buckles. Melanie is sent flying into a wall. Miltia tries to open the door to the sparring chamber, but the pressure Yang is exerting keeps it shut tight.

"What is that?!" Junior yells. "That's not her Semblance. She barely hit her!"

"Melanie!" Miltia screams.

Melanie tries to break free. She can feel her Aura disappearing fast. Her white dress is turning gray from the smoke. It's starting to burn. She almost reaches out a hand. "Miltia..." she wheezes.

Yang blinks. She hears echoes of herself in Miltia's voice, the desperation she felt whenever Ruby got hit and she couldn't get to her side. And that look in Melanie's eyes... _They love each other,_ she realizes. _They're not good people, but they have it in themselves to love at least one other person..._

Yang closes her eyes. She reaches out with what little Aura she has and touches the fire. _That's enough,_ she tells it.

The fire has other ideas. It's trying to use her anger. **Adam?** it seems to ask. **Let me find him. Let me burn him. Let me feed.**

She grits her teeth. _No,_ she says. _Whatever you are, you're a part of me. That means you have to obey me when I say-_ All at once she pulls it back inside her, and it hurts the way only fire can. Like the flames that consumed Beacon. And Pyrrha. "-that's ENOUGH!" she yells. The floor buckles again with the force of Yang's anger.

The fire hisses to her as it dies down. **Soon,** it says.

She collapses.

Melanie slides off the wall as the pressure relents. The door flies open with a bang. The sound of Miltia's heels clicking across the floor reaches Yang's ears as the other girl hurtles to her sister's side. "Melanie!" she says tearfully.

Melanie's breathing is hard and labored. There's a dreadful rattling quality to it as she says, "I'm okay."

"No you're not!" Miltia says. "We need to get you to a doctor! They'll have one somewhere on campus; just hang on!"

Yang drags herself over. "Can I do anything to help?" she asks hoarsely.

Miltia shoots her a hateful glare. "You've done enough damage for today! Just leave us alone!"

Yang watches them leave. Junior's already on his Scroll, talking fast. "I don't _know_ what happened! She just _exploded_!"

He slams the outer door behind him, and Yang's left alone in the wreckage of the sparring room.


	29. Chapter 29

The door opens. Yang doesn't look up.

Taiyang sighs. He turns to the guard. "I'll be taking her home now, if that's okay."

"We're not supposed to-"

"She's my daughter. I work here. Trust me: she won't be causing any more trouble."

Yang curls in on herself.

The guard considers it, then nods.

"You've got the tapes, or what's left of them; you know where to find us. Come on Yang."

She doesn't move.

He holds out his hand. His right hand. "Yang."

She scoots around on the bench, puts her feet to the floor and stands up, not looking at anything but the ground.

"Tell the headmistress I'm sorry, will you?" Taiyang says to the guard.

"That's the first thing you did when you got here." they respond.

"I'd say it again to her face if I had the time." Taiyang says.

As they head out of the front entrance, Yang finally says something. "How's Velvet?" she asks timidly.

"Velvet's at home. Our home, not...not hers." Taiyang says.

That's not what Yang had asked, but she doesn't push the matter.

Once they're in the woods, Taiyang says, "What were you thinking?"

Yang doesn't respond.

"You could've killed that girl!"

Yang doesn't respond.

"I know she works for Junior Xiong, but still!"

Yang doesn't respond.

Taiyang sighs. "It's just like in the tournament. You used your Semblance to win every fight after the qualifiers. Did you notice that?"

"So what?" Yang says. "How is me using my Semblance any different than someone else using theirs?"

"Because not everyone else's is basically a temper tantrum."

She raises an eyebrow at him.

"I'm serious!" he laughs. "Once you take damage, you can dish it back twice as hard, but that doesn't make you invincible! It's great when you're in a bind, but what happens if you miss? What happens if they're stronger? What then? Now you're just weak and tired! You've always been one to burn brighter than everyone else, whether it was with your smile, or, well, I remember your first haircut." He comes to a halt. Yang does the same. He puts a hand on her face to examine the cut. She winces. "Though I'm not sure you of all people need a lecture on being invincible. I mean, Aura's great: this scratch'll be gone in a day or two."

He lets go, and keeps walking, leaving unsaid the other wound she'd gotten recently. Yang follows suit, though she lags a little behind. "But you gotta keep your emotions in check. Keep a level head, and think before you act. Your Semblance is a great fallback, but you can't let yourself rely on it. It won't always save you."

"...I'm sorry." Yang whispers.

"I know you are." Taiyang says, and for once, he's right. "That's one of the things you and your mother _don't_ have in common. She never apologized. Or if she did, she never meant it."

Yang looks sharply at him. _Was I that bad?_

He looks back at her. "Raven was great in so many ways - her strength, her ambition, her dedication to whatever cause she thought was worth fighting for." He smiles. "I'm proud of how much of her I see in you. But, I'm glad I don't see all of her in you."

"Huh?" Yang says.

"Your mother was... a complicated woman. Like everybody, she had her faults, but those faults are what tore our team apart. And, it did a real number on our family. You both act like the easiest way to tackle an obstacle is through it." The recent storm has knocked a large tree down across the path. Taiyang looks at it. Yang can see that he's imagining her punching through it. Or maybe her mother chopping it into pieces. "That strength is all that matters in a fight. But if you just take a second look, then maybe you see..." He steps off the path to go around it, then he turns and waits for her to join him. "...there's a way around as well."

Yang follows his lead. It's not easy; she almost loses her balance once as she steps over the roots; but she makes it. "I never wanted to let you down." she says, unable to look at him any more.

"It's not too big a deal. The training room can be repaired. It'll take time, sure, but there are other ones the students can use." He smiles. "Heck, it's not like I can ground you; you never leave the house anyway! Just...just think about what I said, all right?"

Yang swallows, and nods.

They continue down the path to the house.

* * *

"You're thinking too much." Fox says.

She scowls and gets back on her feet.

"Yatsuhashi left himself open for a moment. You could've capitalized, but you were afraid it was a trick."

 _It was, wasn't it?_ She looks at Yatsuhashi. His face offers no clue. "And how do you know? Aren't you supposed to be blind?" she says to Fox.

Fox smiles. "I use my Aura to see. I send out...pulses, like sonar. It's mostly short-range, but if I want to I can expand it a little ways."

"Wow." Yang says. She means it. It sounds amazing. "What about Grimm?"

"Grimm are different. As you know, they don't have souls, meaning they don't have Aura. They're an absence as opposed to a presence. It's harder for me to 'see' them, so I have to use my other senses."

"Could you teach me?" Yang asks.

"Perhaps. I'd be more concerned with what's close by for now."

Yang stiffens. She almost looks over her shoulder, but there's no time. She does a front flip over Yatsuhashi's leg as he tries to sweep her own legs, and the fight continues.

* * *

"So Yang," Taiyang begins casually. "I've been watching your practice sessions. Given any more thought to using the Atlas arm?"

Yang frowns. "I feel like it's kind of too late now. I'd need to adjust to that in addition to getting back in shape."

"It's never too late to change. It's still _right_ where you _left_ it. Eh?"

She cracks a smile as she finishes her protein shake.

* * *

In a moment of anger, Yang sets the instructions aside, then sighs and picks them back up. "So it's like that..." She looks at the clasp. "...and that... and that..."

Zwei barks. He wags his tail when she looks down at him.

Yang smiles, then takes her new arm in her real one and prepares to attach it for the first time.

It had come with a new cap for her stump, which necessitates removing the old cap first. "I might as well-" she says, looking at the bandages that cover her stump. "No. Too much trouble changing 'em when it's just me."

The cap goes on nice and clean, which is still more than can be said for what's underneath those bandages. She takes a deep breath and attaches the Atlas arm to the new cap, fastening the clasp with her real fingers that only shake a little.

The Atlas arm doesn't move. She tries to make it but she's forgotten how after all this time. "Like riding a bike." she tells herself. "Which you might actually be able to do again."

She thinks about flexing her new fingers.

Pain shoots through her right arm. She cries out and staggers back, clutching at her shoulder with her left arm. It feels like it's burning all over again, the way it had for so long after she'd woken up.

Zwei whimpers. He puts his front paws on her leg.

She grits her teeth. _Pain's nothing new,_ she tries to tell herself. She thinks about flexing one finger at a time.

She can't tell if the pain is actually going away or if she's learning to deal with it. But she thinks she can see the metal fingers twitch a little. "Come on," she says. "Middle one. For jerkwad Adam." It definitely twitches that time.

She laughs and holds her Atlas arm up to the sky. "You hear that?" she shouts. "It's all for you!" Her middle finger is raised towards the sun.

A voice interrupts her. Another impossible voice. "Welcome to the Atlas Better Life program," someone seems to say. Yang looks around in confusion. "Thank you for choosing the RA-36-"

"Weiss?" Yang says.

"Oh," Weiss says. "It's you. Took you long enough."

"What do you mean? Where have you been?" Little Miss Schnee is nowhere in sight. "Where... _are_ you?"

"I'm a simplistic artificial intelligence program built into your new prosthetic arm-"

"They can do that now? Wait, what am I saying? Atlas, am I right?"

Weiss huffs at being interrupted. "Naturally." she says.

"So... When you say simplistic, how simplistic are we talking about?"

"Well, it's nowhere near the same level of complexity as Penny. You remember her?"

"Of course." Yang says. She frowns. "But how does a 'simplistic' AI have space in its memory files for something like that?"

"I've plugged into your cerebral cortex to help you get better acquainted with your new arm. Accessing _your_ memory files is just icing on the cake."

"You would know all about icing. Eh?" Yang swears she can see Weiss burying her face in her hand. "That phantom pain just now, that was a side-effect of you plugging in?"

"I always said you were smarter than you look."

"You so did _not_ always say that!"

Weiss laughs. It's such an unexpected sound that Yang has to laugh as well.

Zwei is rubbing his back against the grass. He looks up at Yang.

"Hey Zwei. Say hi to Weiss Junior for me." Yang says. She waves her Atlas arm stiffly at him, and he barks.

* * *

"You're doing great!" Velvet says. "Yatsu barely had a chance to fight back!"

Yang shrugs. She takes a glass of the protein shake from Coco. _I still didn't take him down though. He just stood there and outlasted me,_ she thinks.

"Baby steps, Xiao Long. Baby steps." Coco tells her, as if reading her mind.

 _I'm not a-_ Then Yang sighs. "I know."

* * *

"Yang." Yang doesn't look up. "Don't you think you ought to slow down?"

She shakes her head, her hair flying everywhere. _Punch, punchpunch, punch._ "I've been in the slow lane for too long already. I bet Blake and Ruby aren't taking it slow."

"What about me?" That voice does make Yang look up. "The real me, I mean. You never stop and think about her. It's always Blake this, Ruby that, Pyrrha and Penny..."

Weiss would be standing next to Coco, her arms folded across her chest, or planted squarely on her hips. But she's just a voice in Yang's head right now. Not one of the usual ones, thankfully; at least this one seems to be real, and coming from her arm instead of her overactive imagination.

Yang wipes sweat from her forehead. She takes a drink of her shake and closes her eyes. _I didn't even know her,_ she thinks apologetically. _Not really. I knew a little of what she liked and a lot of what she didn't like, but who_ was _she? She always kept herself so buttoned-up. At least with Blake I could get under those buttons from time to time..._

"Maybe you should've tried romancing her instead." Weiss Junior says. "It probably would've turned out better."

 _And step all over my baby sister's feet?_ Yang grins. _No way._

* * *

Velvet waits anxiously for Yang to finish her bench-presses before she feels brave enough to say, "Yang, we have to go. Back to Beacon."

Yang stiffens.

"Not for good!" Velvet hastens to add. "We just need to talk to Glynda, tell her you're not doing well, and...ask for some more time to help you."

"I'm doing well." Yang finally says, though she doesn't look at Velvet. "How long will you be gone?"

Velvet shrugs helplessly. "I don't know. She might want to send us out real quick on a mission to make sure we can still handle things. And it depends what that mission is..."

Yang gets up. She walks over to Velvet and hugs her tightly. "I'll miss you." she whispers.

Velvet hugs her back. "I'll miss you too." she whispers.

Yang walks Velvet to the front of the house, where the rest of her team is waiting. Coco hugs Yang as well for good measure. "We'll be back as soon as we can." she says.

Yang nods, not trusting herself to say anything that wouldn't sound stupid.

"And when we do, we should talk about what happened at Signal..." Velvet says.

Yang shrinks back. Velvet notices it with a frown as she and her team depart.

CFVY has scarcely disappeared from sight when Yang hears a familiar voice in the distance. She puts down the dumbbell again and returns to the front of the house. "Sun?" she says.

Sun raises a hand in greeting. "Hey Yang!" he says. He runs over, stopping just short of her. "Time for a hug?"

She hugs him, and he hugs back. "It feels like it's been forever." she says.

"I know, right? Those Grimm don't let up!" He pulls back. "And speaking of not letting up, you look _great_!"

Yang smiles. "Thanks. I think I'm finally getting my act together."

"Funny you should say that..." Sun says, pointing behind him with his tail. Yang looks over his shoulder. Scarlet, Sage and Neptune wave at her. Neptune looks a little green around the gills. "He didn't take the ride over too well." Sun says by way of explanation.

"It's better than being cooped up at Beacon." Neptune says. "...I think." He burps and puts a hand to his mouth.

"Did you run into CFVY on your way here?"

Sun nods. "Uh huh! My timing's pretty great. Coco said she didn't know when they'd be back. I spent almost a month at Beacon. Fair's fair, right?"

Yang looks away. "I guess..."

* * *

Neo refuses to greet the newcomers. It's easy to tell why; when Sun brings it up, Yang says, "I think she likes how quiet it is here. You guys can be pretty _boi_ sterous!"

Sun and his team break down in guffaws, and Yang smiles.

She manages to get some sparring in with all four before sundown. As she trudges upstairs afterward for a shower, she's very grateful it's Tai's turn to make dinner. She'd made sure to tell him that Neo wouldn't be joining them, and he'd reluctantly assured her he'd prepare something separately for her.

She hurries through her shower, knocking quietly on Neo's door before her hair's finished drying. "It's me," she says.

Neo opens the door. She frowns and crosses her arms.

"I know." Yang tells her. "I'm sorry they're so loud. Can you use your Semblance to, like, soundproof the room or something?"

 _I could,_ Neo writes in the air. _But it would take a lot out of me. As soon as I stop, they'd be at it again._

Yang hugs her carefully, unspeakably grateful that Neo doesn't take it as an opportunity to feel her up. "I'm sorry." she says again. Then an idea hits her. "How would you feel about sleeping outdoors?"

* * *

After Neo has dinner they manage to lug two mattresses to the clearing. Yang has to make a separate trip for the sheets, and she lingers at the house to explain the situation to her dad.

Taiyang frowns. "Don't get me wrong," he says. "It's great that you're taking what I said to heart and finding a way around this. But Neo shouldn't expect people to keep going out of their way for her."

"I'm the one who brought it up." Yang says, leaning against the doorway of her father's bedroom.

"And that's great too." Taiyang says, marking his place in his book. "Just... What has she done for _you_ lately?"

"That's not how friendship works dad. You give because you want to, not because you expect them to owe you one."

"Maybe you're right." he admits after a moment. "It has been a while since I was in your shoes. Just remember what I said, all right?"

"Always do." She smiles at him from the doorway before she leaves.

* * *

Neo holds out a Scroll when Yang returns. "What's this?" She takes it and looks at the screen. "Ain't She Sweet," she reads off the display. "Ben Bernie and the Hotel Roosevelt Orchestra..." She looks back at Neo. "I didn't know you liked music."

Neo shrugs. She snuggles down under the covers.

"You always run upstairs whenever Coco tries to play something."

 _Too loud,_ Neo writes on the ground between them. _Not my style._

"Oh. That makes sense." Yang sets the Scroll beside her bed, and once she gets beneath her covers, she pushes play.

It's an old-fashioned song, and the quality seems pretty old too.

 _"Ain't she sweet?"_ some people sing after about a minute of strictly instrumental music. _"See her comin' down the street. Now I ask you very confidentially: ain't she sweet?"_

* * *

When Yang awakens the next morning, she finds Neo gone, and a message on the Scroll. _I'm going for a walk. Come and find me if you dare._

"Not before breakfast." Yang groans. She makes her way back to the house, downing a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's (now with a new mascot), a banana and orange juice, and grunting monosyllabically at any one who tries to engage her in conversation.

Once she's back in the forest, her brain starts to wake up properly. "If I was a hellspawn..." she mutters. "Was? Or were? ...where would I be?"

"Not that that means anything," she adds some time later, when her good mood has started wearing off. "She could be right behind me and I'd never know." She looks behind her just to be sure.

Nothing.

Even later than that, she finds herself back in the clearing. She growls. Neo is sitting on the rock, facing away from her, umbrella in hand. "Really?" Yang says.

 _You were taking too long,_ Neo writes in the air without turning. _I could've walked the entire island before you found me._

"You're a tiny little girl with illusions for a Semblance. Of course I couldn't find you." Yang gripes. She drops herself down with her back against the rock, not saying anything, even when Neo leans over her and tries to poke her nose.

* * *

Yang is just sitting down for lunch later that day when there's a knock at the door. "I'll get it." she says to Zwei, who's the only one in the room with her. He keeps on drinking.

She heads to the front door and opens it. CFVY drags themselves inside, single-file. "Don't. Ask." Coco grumps.

Yang closes her mouth, and the door. "You want something to eat?" she asks.

Velvet falls face-first onto the couch. "I want to sleep for a _year_." she says into the cushion. Fox and Yatsuhashi join her, Fox's head lolling over onto Yatsuhashi's shoulder.

"Good time to start. Team SSSN's in town, doing gosh-knows-what." Yang says. She grabs her sandwich from the kitchen and sits down beside Velvet.

"Please don't." Velvet says.

"What? Oh, your ears." Yang feels awful for forgetting. "I'll be outside."

Coco raises a hand in farewell from her armchair.

* * *

They never do get around to talking about Signal.

Sun and his team stay for another week. Their loud chatter and attempts to banter with CFVY get on even Yang's nerves after a while. When she's not trying to get back in shape, she spends most of her days with Neo, wandering the forest and wondering where all the Grimm have gone, before she remembers the dragon on top of Beacon.

Eventually Yang stops thinking. She just walks and admires the same bits of scenery over and over again before returning to her workouts.

* * *

"You're running Yang."

"Shut up Blake." She's alone, so there's no need to worry about other people giving her funny looks. _All alone._

"You're running even faster."

"I'm trying to catch up."

"You're afraid of looking back. Afraid of getting hurt again."

"I'm GONNA get hurt!" She punches the bag some more with her new arm. "It's my Semblance, remember?" _Even though dad told me not to use it,_ she thinks to herself.

"You know what I mean."

"No I don't. You're not even here." She punctuates each sentence with a fresh jab. "Which is why I'm _saying_... Go AWAY BLAKE!"

"Yang?"

Yang frowns. She'd sounded different that time. "What now?"

"I'm sorry. I- I should go."

Yang punches the bag a few more times, trying to empty her mind and drown out the voice.

"I just... I wanted to say I'm sorry... For running away..." Blake sounds like she's falling over the brink of tears. "I understand...if you hate me... You should. I-"

 _Fine! You want me to look, even though you're not even real? One look, that's all you're gonna get._ Yang turns.

Blake is not facing her. She's wearing something different. A long white coat with a sheath on the back for Gambol Shroud and a pair of heeled boots are all Yang can really see. Oh, the ribbon atop her head is gone. Her Faunus ears are lying flat. Her shoulders are very slightly shaking.

"That's a new look." Yang says. "Where'd I get this one from?" Blake doesn't respond. "Come on. Don't you have some more to tell me about..." Yang finds herself taking a step forward. "Or..." She forgets what she was going to say the moment she catches a strange scent in the air. "Why do I smell the ocean? We're a long way from-"

Her heart leaps into her throat. "No." she says. "No. I've been pushing myself too hard like Coco said; you are _not about_ to convince me-"

Blake turns. "Yang...?"

And she knows.

Author's Note: Over on AO3 we're actually on Chapter 40. And there's a couple other RWBY fics I haven't uploaded here (and don't really plan to because the editor here is very awkward.)

As with everything, reviews do help. ;)


	30. Chapter 30

She knows.

She's afraid.

But she knows.

But she's too afraid to do anything.

"If you try and convince me you're real this time, I-"

"Yang, I _am_ real." Blake doesn't know why she's saying this. She should be running. Not-Yang in her head keeps telling her to.

"I can think of two ways for you to prove it. You're not gonna do either of them, because you _can't_ -"

Blake holds out a hand. Yang looks at it, then looks away dismissively. Blake's heart lurches. She lowers her hand.

"Blake?" someone says from behind her.

Blake whirls. "Coco?" she says in confusion.

"Looking good Belladonna." Coco says, recovering quickly. "Coat brings out your complexion, and complexities. Pants are nice and tight."

Yang's head whips around. "You- You see her too?"

Coco nods. "Want me to prove it?" She takes a step forward. "Sorry about this, but it's the only way we can really be sure with Neo in the house." She raises her hand. Blake flinches away. _Coco wouldn't... What has Yang told them about me?_

But Coco doesn't hit her. She does form her hand into a fist though, from which she extends one finger, her middle finger, and pokes Blake squarely on the nose. She does not say 'boop'. She pulls her hand back, making sure Blake notices which finger she'd used.

When it's over, Blake blinks. "Did... Did you and Nora do some sort of Aura-meld while I was away?"

Coco cackles. "Remnant ain't ready for that kind of terror!" Then she says, "No. Nora and the rest of her team, with the obvious exception, went to Haven with Ruby."

"What about Sun?" Blake says to Yang.

Yang is staring at Blake, her mouth hanging open. "You're-" she says. Then she snaps, "No. I might be imagining Coco too."

She turns her back to them. Blake wonders desperately what she should say.

Coco takes the initiative. "Yang," she says, walking up to stand within arms' reach of her. "She's real, honey. She's here."

Yang doesn't turn. She keeps punching the bag harder and harder until Blake's afraid she's going to break something. "Yang!" Blake hurries over and pulls on Yang's arm just as she's about to punch it again. "That's enough!"

Yang gasps. Her arm goes limp in Blake's grip. Her shoulders start to shake even as she keeps staring at the bag. Blake quickly lets go.

Coco takes a step forward and puts her arms around Yang. "It's okay." she murmurs. "It's okay. Let it out."

Blake watches as if paralyzed. "This is all your fault you know." another Yang says. "If you hadn't left her she'd have been fine."

Blake doesn't say anything.

Eventually Yang lets go of Coco, or Coco lets go of Yang, and hesitantly moves toward Blake. Blake has to struggle not to take a step back. "Are you-" Yang says. Blake holds out her hand again. It's trembling. Yang looks at it again. She reaches out her own hand. Slowly, they inch closer to each other. At the first touch Yang gasps again. She pulls her hand back. Every muscle in Blake's body tenses. Yang raises her hand. "Can I-" Blake doesn't know what Yang wants. "Your ears. Can I-" Blake hesitantly lowers her head and Yang brushes the tips of her fingers against Blake's ears.

"I hope you don't expect me to purr." Blake tries to joke.

Yang laughs weakly. Her hand is still rubbing Blake's ears. "You're _here_ ," she says. "You're real."

Blake can't take it any more. She rushes forward and seizes Yang in her arms. "I'm here." she says. "I'm real. I'm sorry."

Coco gives them some time before she says, "When you two are done, I'd like you to come on in and say hello to the gang."

Blake doesn't have it in her to respond, if she even hears her. She's too busy crying and hugging Yang. Yang, for her part, is too busy crying and hugging Blake. "You came back." she says over and over. "You came back."

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen, and everyone else like me!" Coco says loudly. "For my next trick, I'm going to pull a cat out of my hat!" She takes off her hat, holds it out so that everyone can see that it's empty, rummages around inside it, then she drops it and steps aside to reveal Blake, who's standing stiff with fright.

"You can go ahead and run if you want." one of the Yangs says from behind her. "You didn't sign up for this. I'll understand."

"Blake?" Velvet says.

Yatsuhashi folds his arms.

"We're sure that's her?" Taiyang says for lack of anything better to say.

"Yes." Fox says. "Neo is not using her Semblance."

Zwei barks. He bounds over to her and stands up on his hind legs.

She almost hisses as she steps back.

"He's just happy to see you." one of the Yangs says. _That could be either of them._

A pink-and-brown haired girl that Blake knows she's seen somewhere before stands in the corner, glowering. She opens her mouth and Roman Torchwick's voice comes out. "Well, if it isn't the long-lost little kitty. What's new pussycat?"

"Neo." one of the Yangs says. "What have I said about being racist?" _That's probably the real one._

The name rings a bell, as does Torchwick's voice. "Wait..." Blake turns around. "That's the girl who attacked you on the train."

Coco is picking up her hat and dusting it off. She frowns at that.

Yang shrugs again. "It's a long story." she says.

"Even seven of you won't be enough." Not-Adam says. " _She_ knows. Who else did she tell?"

Blake grits her teeth. She raises a hand. "Hello." she says.

Velvet rushes forward. Blake is taken aback when the other girl throws her arms around her. "It's so good to see you!" she squeals.

"It is?" Blake asks in surprise.

"Us Faunus gotta stick together!" Velvet says. She pulls away, muttering to herself. "Faunuses? Fauni?"

Yatsuhashi and Fox stand side by side a little ways away. They nod to Blake. Blake nods back, unsure what, if anything, to say.

Neo stays where she is, still glaring.

Zwei has stopped standing on his hind legs, but he's still looking up expectantly at her.

She huffs. "Fine." She crouches down in front of him. "Just this once." He barks, as if he really knows what's coming. She wouldn't put it past him. She scratches him behind the ears and he pants happily.

 _Now comes the hard part._ She stands up. "You must be Mr Xiao Long." she says.

The man smiles. "Taiyang. Call me Tai." He holds out a hand. "Nice to finally put a face to the name I've heard so much."

Blake reluctantly puts her hand in his. They shake. Her eyes flicker to Yang. Yang's face is giving nothing away.

"You gonna be staying long? Cause we kind of have a shortage of beds at the moment." Coco says.

"I can stay in town." Blake says, withdrawing her hand. "There is a hotel in town, right?"

Taiyang laughs. "Sure. There's one not far from Signal. Although, there is one bed that hasn't been taken..."

"Dad!" Yang says.

"What? Don't you want her to stay here?"

"I hadn't really gotten that far..." Yang admits, not looking at Taiyang.

"I thought this young lady was your partner." Taiyang says. His hands move to his hips.

"It was a long time ago." Blake says hastily. "And I don't want to be a bother."

"Well you've still got time to decide." Taiyang says. "Won't be close to dark for a while. Why don't you take her for a walk Yang? You can catch up."

"Okay." Yang says. "Come on Zwei."

Zwei barks and waddles towards the door.

Blake is about to follow him when the girl appears in front of her. Blake takes a step back.

"Neo?" Taiyang says, a note of concern in his voice.

Neo's mismatched eyes seem to burn into Blake's mind. She makes a series of rapid gestures with her hands. It takes a moment for Blake's rudimentary knowledge of sign language to come back to her. The word Neo makes is not dirty or obscene _or_ a racial epithet. It's one word, a very ordinary word.

 _Mine._

* * *

They walk through the forest, the sunlight beaming down on them. _It's not nearly as bad as Menagerie gets_ , Blake decides. _It's actually really nice, unlike the silence._

"Yang." she says.

"What?" Yang says, too quickly.

"About what happened."

"Which time?" Yang laughs. There's no humor in it. It doesn't sound right coming from her.

"Just now, back at the house." Blake has to think very hard about how she words this. "You kept telling me to go away before you even saw me."

Yang puts her hands in her pockets. Both hands. Somehow it had escaped Blake's notice before, but Yang has a prosthetic arm now. It looks nice, Blake supposes, although it's silver, which doesn't really suit Yang.

"I've been seeing you for a while." Yang says. Blake looks at her. "Hallucinating. Coco's books said it's PTSD. I'm guessing you know what that stands for."

"My parents think I might have it."

"Really?" Yang looks at her. "Wait, you have parents?"

Blake smiles a little. "Yes. No siblings, if that's what you're wondering."

"Wow." Yang says. "I thought you just dropped out of the sky as a baby one day, grumpy and impressively literate."

Blake laughs. "Nope. I'm pretty ordinary."

 _You're one of those things,_ Yang thinks to herself. _And it's not ordinary._

Neither of them can think of anything to say for a while. Zwei wanders from smell to smell, half-heartedly chasing a squirrel at one point.

"This isn't working." Blake says. She turns away.

"Blake!" Yang says. Suddenly she's in front of her. "Don't you dare try to run again."

"Or what?" Blake says.

Yang's shoulders slump. "I-"

"Why did you come back if you're just going to leave?" she asks after a moment.

There's a lump in Blake's throat. "I had to say I'm sorry, one more time. I said it so much while you were-" She stops. "-while you were unconscious. But there was never anyone around to hear me."

"You're sorry? YOU'RE sorry?" Yang says.

Blake tenses, but she's not prepared for what actually happens next.

Yang is hugging her with both arms. The right one is cold even in the heat of the summer sunshine. "I'm the one who should be sorry." Yang whispers thickly.

"You?" Blake says, her body still rigid in shock. "Why?"

"I put you in danger." Yang says.

" _What?_ "

Yang lets her go. "He wouldn't have done that to you if we weren't-"

"Yes. He would have. He said he would make it his mission to destroy everything I loved."

"Wait, that was real?"

Blake blinks. "What?"

Yang wipes away tears with her hand of flesh and bone. "I thought I made it up."

"You didn't." Blake says. She turns away again.

"I'm sor-"

"No." Blake says. "It's not your fault. You didn't know him like I did."

"I knew a little." Yang says. "That night in Mountain Glenn, and then later when you told me more about it. About him."

"I shouldn't have. It's not your burden."

"Blake." Yang says firmly. Blake finds herself turning back to her. "We were partners. That _made_ it my burden."

Blake can't help but notice the past tense. "What about now?" she asks, though she knows she doesn't want to hear the truth.

Yang raises her new right arm. "You tell me." she says simply.

* * *

Sometime later they find themselves in the clearing where Yang had run into CFVY last month. Yang stands beside the rock. "Go on and sit down." she says.

"You should sit down. You live here."

Yang laughs. "I live at the house. You're a guest here; you sit down!"

Blake gives in. "So is this what we're going to be doing? Hashing out each and every issue we might have?"

Yang puts her hands on her hips. "You got any better ideas?" Then, when Blake doesn't say anything, she adds, "You are planning on staying, right?"

"I don't know." Blake says. "It's so hard."

Yang's hands come down. "What's hard?"

Blake gestures. "You're- You're here, and then I see you over there and you keep telling me to go away again. I-"

Yang comes closer. There are unmistakable tears in her eyes. "You wanna know what I see?" She crouches down before Blake. "I see you, right here in front of me. And you're real." She reaches out and takes Blake's hands in both of hers. "And _I'm_ real. I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep seeing things that aren't really there. Maybe you are too. We can keep an eye on each other, keep ourselves grounded." She squeezes gently. "What do you say?"

Blake is smiling as she starts crying. "I think-" She stops for so long that Yang has to prompt her.

"Yes?"

"I think I'd like that." Blake whispers.

Yang smiles. She beams like the sun, which is fitting. And as their lips meet for the first time in a long time, another song is playing in the cottage a short distance away. It turns out Coco is the music fiend. Her Scroll is loaded with songs from every known genre, and some that defy description, much like Coco herself. The song that's playing is one she discovered shortly after CFVY was formed. She likes the song mainly for two lines in it that mention 'coffee city', and if any of her teammates have grown tired of it, they haven't grown tired enough to let her know. It speaks to the past and the present, and maybe even things to come.

 _"In the heat of summer sunshine, I miss you like nobody else. In the heat of summer sunshine, I'll kiss you, and nobody needs to know."_

The song also mentions that winter is coming, which is true, and while it's still a long while away, it's only ever drawing nearer.


	31. Chapter 31

After they check in at a hotel, Jaune goes to order a drink. The bartender offers a token attempt at protest, but Jaune cuts him off. "We're old enough to die trying to defend you. So we're old enough to drink." The bartender shrugs and moves away to prepare the drink.

"He's just doing his job." Ruby says mildly.

"This far out from Haven, Mistral is mostly lawless. I'm surprised he even thought to bring it up." Ren adds.

Jaune shrugs. "I didn't want to get into another argument."

"Another one?" Nora asks.

Jaune turns. "You were gonna yell at me for running off, weren't you?"

"No." Ruby says. "I...I wanted to talk. About Pyrrha."

Jaune sighs. "Oh. That's...that's worse." The bartender arrives with Jaune's drink. Jaune slides a couple Lien across the bar toward him, and the bartender does the same with the drink. Jaune takes a sip, trying not to gag at how bitter it is. _Is it poison? Nah. That's probably just how hard liquor tastes._ He grimaces. "Go ahead."

Ruby looks down at the floor. "I'm- I'm sorry I couldn't save her."

"Pyrrha must've known what she was doing." Nora says. "She knew that woman beat Oz. She knew she couldn't stop her all by herself." She stops and bites her lip.

Ren picks up after her. "But she _could_ slow her down, and give the rest of us a chance to evacuate. Who knows what Cinder might have done if she'd had the time?"

Jaune says nothing.

Ruby looks shyly at him. "Jaune...?"

He looks at her for a moment. Then he looks away.

Ruby's chest hurts. She looks away too, hoping no one notices the tears in her eyes.

"Jaune." Ren says. "That is no way to treat Ruby."

"Huh?" Jaune mutters.

"She's our team now." Nora says. "You wouldn't treat Pyrrha like that."

Jaune laughs harshly. "Wouldn't I?" He looks up at Nora and Ren. "You remember what I was like first semester. I treated her way worse..."

" _Maybe_ ," Nora says, in a tone that makes Ruby wonder if Nora hasn't entirely forgiven Jaune for that. "But you got _better_. If you do that to Ruby, you're just stepping back into old habits."

"Or new ones." Ruby says. She takes the glass away from Jaune.

"Hey!" he says.

Ruby glares at him as she pours the drink into the trash. "I've seen what this stuff does to people. You're better off without it."

"Oh yeah?" Jaune snaps suddenly. "Who?"

"My dad." Ruby says, outwardly braver than she feels. "It ruined him, for years. My sister had to raise us both while Uncle Qrow was away..."

Jaune opens his mouth as if he's about to say something, then he slips off his chair.

"Lightweight." Nora says with a sigh, but she hops down and picks him up. "I'll get him back to the room." She slings him across her shoulders and walks away seemingly without effort.

Ren and Ruby are left on their own. Ruby looks out the window at the sky.

"We'll talk some sense into him." Ren offers suddenly as if sensing her unease.

Ruby doesn't know what to say. She reaches into her pocket for her new lucky coin and fidgets uncomfortably with it.

* * *

Someone watches them from across the street.

Until someone else splashes them in the face with their own drink. "What?" Qrow drawls.

Raven glares. "You're staying away from her for a reason." she says.

Qrow takes out a handkerchief and wipes his face with it, before wringing it out into his open mouth. "Yeah." he says when he's through. "But I'm staying as close as I can, also for a reason." Raven rolls her eyes. "And speaking of Semblance..." He points a finger at his sister. "What has yours been telling you?"

Raven almost looks doubtful. She stares off into the distance for a moment before she says, "It's been acting strange. They told me when I first discovered it it's supposed to show me visions of the near future, but if that's true, the future keeps changing."

"Oh?" Qrow asks, feigning disinterest.

"Sometimes she's alone." Raven says. Qrow waits for her to say more. "Sometimes she doesn't have anyone but Tai. And the monkey boy I kept seeing, he shows up with the dark-haired one."

"You mean Blake?"

Raven shrugs with her hands. "But other times the monkey boy keeps appearing at Beacon. And _she_ has five others with her, including the pipsqueak I saved her from on the train. So much for gratitude."

"She doesn't have to be grateful." Qrow says. "You left her without a word. Twice, in fact."

"The tribe is my real family." Raven snaps. "If she wants me so bad, she can come and find me."

"I told her I'd help her if she wanted to." Qrow says, if only to see the look on his sister's face. It lives up to expectations. "She's _my_ family."

Raven scoffs. She leans back in her chair. Qrow stares into his cup, hoping in vain that his sister hadn't doused him with all of it.

"So..." he says after a while. "Is she in danger?"

"Who?" Raven asks.

"The Maiden of Spring." Qrow says. Raven frowns but says nothing. "Thought I'd got you that time. Who do you think?"

Raven shakes her head. "I don't know. I've been trying to focus on more important things of late. But if the Branwen blood does flow through her veins, she won't be able to stay away from it for long."

"And if not?"

"Then I'll have been right to leave."

* * *

"General." Ironwood turns. "A moment of your time, if you would."

"Of course." He follows Weiss to the smaller of the dining rooms. "I was wondering when this would happen. It's been too long since we last spoke."

Weiss frowns as she pours him some coffee. "And whose fault is that? Every other time you've come to talk to my father, you've hurried away before _I_ could talk to _you_."

"The world hasn't stopped while you've been home." Ironwood says tersely. He takes a drink of his coffee in an effort to calm down.

If he notices Weiss's shoulders slump, he refrains from mentioning it. "I know." she says more gently. "It's part of the reason I've asked you here." She drinks as well, to be sociable. "Have you heard anything about..."

"Your team?" He smiles at the look of surprise on her face. "I have. I had a prosthetic arm specially made for...Yang, was it? From the message her father sent, she seems to be taking to it quite well."

"That is good. She was almost unrecognizable when I was...when I left." Weiss takes another drink, slowly, to allow herself to stamp down on her emotions. "But that's only a third of an answer."

"Yes." Ironwood admits. "The other two are harder to explain. Mostly because we don't know where they are."

"You don't _know_?" Weiss snaps. "You're a general in the Atlesian military. You're the HEADMASTER of the academy here!"

"And it is in my capacity as both that I am telling you: If we could not find them, it's almost certain that _you_ could not."

"I know them better than you or any of your men do! The last time we spoke you accused Yang of unprovokedly assaulting another student!"

Ironwood stands up. "I came because I thought you were capable of conducting yourself in a rational and mature manner, not to be insulted by a child." He strides to the door.

"General!" Weiss says. He turns to look at her. Her shoulders slump again. She forces herself to relax. "I'm sorry." she says quietly, not looking at him. "I would... I would greatly appreciate any information you could give me."

Ironwood sighs. He strokes his chin. "There were reports that a dark-haired Faunus matching Miss Belladonna's description was seen waiting for a boat to Menagerie."

Weiss falls back in her chair. "That's where she went..." she says to herself. "Does she have family?"

Ironwood doesn't ask her to elaborate. "As for Ruby Rose, the last definitive word we have on her says she regained consciousness and left Vale in the company of what is left of Team JNPR."

Weiss's stomach lurches, both at the indirection mention of Pyrrha Nikos as well as the thought of Ruby going on without Weiss at her side. "Th- Thank you General." she says. "I...I think I would like to be alone for now."

He nods. "Until next time, Miss Schnee." He closes the door quietly behind him, but Weiss doesn't notice.

"I don't." she whispers, curling up in her chair. "I don't want to be alone..."

* * *

 _"Hey Yaaaang!" Ruby sang. "Guess what Iiii fouuuund!"_

 _"Is that..." Yang squinted at it. "That's my baby picture!" She made a grab for it, but Ruby used her Semblance to sprint to the other side of their dorm room. "Ruby!" Yang cried._

 _Ruby held it out to Weiss. "Take it take it quick!" Flustered, Weiss did as Ruby told her, and Ruby vanished in a cloud of rose petals just as Yang was about to pounce on her._

 _"You are in so much trouble!" Yang said. Ruby's only response was to giggle. "Where did you even find that?!"_

 _"It came in the mail!" Ruby said, diving out of Yang's reach once again. "Along with some other stuff! Dad said he wanted me to have it!"_

 _Yang feinted to the right, then grabbed Ruby by her hood as she was about to disappear. "What kind of 'stuff'?" Yang asked sternly, rubbing her knuckles against Ruby's head._

 _"I won't talk!" Ruby squeaked as she tried to fend her big sister off._

 _Yang suddenly froze at the sound of her girlfriend's voice doing something very un-Blake-like. "Awwww." she_ cooed _. "Yang, you were so adorable!"_

 _Yang let go of Ruby and hurried over to where Blake and Weiss were huddling. "Give me that!" It was her turn to squeak._

 _"Never!" Weiss held it far away from Yang. "I am going to keep it, until I commit it to memory." Yang tried edging around Blake to grab the photo from Weiss, but Blake, giggling, seized her by the arm. "And then!" Weiss drew herself up. "I am going to post copies of it all around campus, so everyone can see how_ adorable you were oh my gods _-"_

 _Ruby watched as Yang flailed her one free arm desperately in Weiss's direction. "Ruby! Tell them to give it back!" Yang said._

 _Ruby shook her head. "I would never give them such a despicable order!"_

 _"Pigtails?! Pigtails?!" Weiss squealed at Blake._

 _"I wasn't prepared for this..." Blake said in return, but a very faint smile crossed her face._

 _"I can't believe you're taking her side." Yang pouted._

 _"Now, Yang," Blake said, trying to stop giggling. "Puppy dog eyes won't work on me. I'm a cat Faunus, remember?"_

 _"How could I forget?" Yang said. Quick as a flash, she reversed Blake's hold on her and pulled her girlfriend close. "Come here..."_

 _Weiss rolled her eyes. "Don't think you're going to lull me into a false sense of complacency by making out with her, Yang."_

 _"Can't blame a girl for trying." Yang grinned as she broke away. Blake's eyes were glazing over. Yang grabbed at the photo one last time. Weiss was ready. "I think that's the only one we have of me from back then." Yang said. "I was in charge of taking all the photos, and we didn't have any cameras with timers on 'em until a long time later. One day Ruby wanted to take one. Well, she took more than one, but this came out the best."_

 _Blake shook her head to clear the stardust left over from the kiss and took another look at the picture. "What's with the bandages?"_

 _"Huh?" Yang said._

 _Blake pointed. "You can kind of see them coming over your socks."_

 _Yang frowned thoughtfully. "I don't remember. Maybe I dropped a glass or something."_

 _Everyone looked at her._

 _"What? Someone had to do the cooking."_

 _"Yang, you were, what, six years old?" Weiss asked._

 _"Six, seven, eight, nine..." Yang shrugged. "Dad couldn't do it, and I sure wasn't going to leave Ruby on her own while I went into Signal to get food every other day." She caught Blake's eye, both of them remembering the talk they'd had in the lecture hall._

 _"But they could've gotten infected!" Ruby said, referring to the wounds. She seemed just as surprised by the news as Blake and Weiss._

 _"Uncle Qrow helped patch me up a couple times. I think that's how we first found out about my Semblance."_

 _Blake imagined a six-year-old Yang standing on a chair by the stove and trying to break an egg, only for it to explode when she cracked it against the frying pan. It was an amusing thought, but she forced herself to discard it. "Yang..."_

 _"Hey, we're all still here right?" Yang gave Ruby a smile. "I think I did an okay job."_

 _But everyone continued to stare at her, and she sighed. "Okay, group hug. Come on." She held out her arms._

 _"You just want the photograph." Weiss said. She secured it against the wall with a Glyph before she came in to join the hug._

 _"There. See?" Yang hugged her team close. "All good now."_


	32. Chapter 32

They're interrupted by a loud series of barks. Zwei is at their feet, trying to figure out what's going on. "Easy there Zwei." Yang laughs. She bends down to look him in the eyes. "She doesn't like it when you do that."

Zwei jumps up and licks her face. "Hey!" She almost fights him off, but soon finds herself flat on her back while he continues to lick her.

Blake smiles a quarter-inch-smile.

Yang looks up at her. "You know," she says between salvos of doggy kisses. "If he gets my mouth it's like he kissed you almost as much as I did."

" _Ew_." Blake says, wrinkling her nose.

"Whaaat?" Yang leaps to her feet, grabbing Zwei while he hangs perplexingly in the air. She holds the dog up to Blake. "Can you really say no to this face?"

Blake lets her ears go flat. She looks at Yang before she leans in close to Zwei. "No." she tells him.

He licks her nose.

"Blech!" She jumps back and wipes it on her sleeve.

"Bad boy!" Yang tells Zwei. He wags his tail.

Yang sets him down and steps around him to stand by Blake. "Are you okay Blechy?" she says.

Blake finishes cleaning herself off. "That's the first pun you've made since I came back." she says. "I'm impressed."

"It's actually my first pun in a while. You should be impressed _and_ flattered." Yang says.

Blake cracks another quarter-inch-smile.

They just look at each other. Yang doesn't think she could ever grow tired of this.

Blake seems to, though. "I don't..." she says. "I don't think we should tell anyone. About us."

"How come?" Yang asks.

Blake's gaze fastens on Yang's right arm for a moment before she looks away.

"Oh." Yang flexes it unconsciously. "Is _he_ still-"

Blake nods.

Yang frowns. "Okay, so... You ran to try and...protect me, right?" Her hand clenches into a fist. She hides it behind her head in what she hopes to be a carefree pose. "Why'd you come back?"

 _It's not the time for the truth_ , Blake decides silently. _At least not all of it._ "I can't run from myself forever. If I try and hide my mistakes a million miles away, if I try to _make_ someone leave me, I'm just as bad as he is."

" _No_." Yang says firmly. She comes closer until she's almost face to face with Blake. Blake still doesn't look at her. "We've been apart for so long, but there's one thing I know for sure about you." She puts her hand under Blake's chin, gently, and turns Blake's head so they're looking at each other. "You will NEVER be like him."

"But-"

"No buts." Yang says.

Blake supposes she'll have to settle for that. She tries to lighten the mood. "Not even the Bellabutt?" she asks. She frowns. _That's not what she called it._ "The Bella _booty_?"

"Not even that." Yang laughs, a little shakily.

"Well then." Blake walks away, making sure to sway her hips a little. "I'll be sure to work on it."

Yang watches her in a daze. "I hate to see you go, but I love watching you walk away." she mutters under her breath.

Zwei whines to get her attention. When she looks down at him, he looks back at her with his tongue hanging out.

Yang raises a hand to her mouth to make sure she's not doing the same. She pretends to glare at him. "You are too darn smart for your own good." she says.

He keeps right on panting.

* * *

Coco's waiting for them in front of the house. Neo stands next to her, pointedly inspecting her fingernails. "You didn't tell me the adorable little hellspawn tried to kill you." she says to Yang.

Yang winces. "It was a long time ago." she says.

"It was less than a YEAR ago!"

Blake frowns.

"She's been good since she came here." Yang says defensively. "Right?"

Coco looks over her glasses. "She threw a knife at Yatsuhashi, she sits around and stares at us all day. And do I even HAVE to mention-"

"Okay, okay!" Yang holds up her hands.

Coco puts her glasses back up. She takes a deep breath. "Velvet and I have tried being patient. The books say that trying to dig up trauma all at once can just cause bigger problems down the road." She adds, "But we don't know when we're getting called back to Beacon for real. You're making progress physically, but you're not ready to join us there. And besides, you've still got half your team to find." Her expression softens. "We're here for you Yang, but we can't always be." Neo nods solemnly. Coco elbows her.

Yang looks at the ground. She can't bring herself to say anything.

Coco looks at the sky. "Sun's comin' down. Got a few more hours to make up your mind if you're staying or not." she says to Blake.

Blake says, "I've made my decision." Yang looks at her from the corner of her eye, as does Neo. "I'm staying." Blake says to both her and to Coco.

Coco smiles. "That's what I like to hear." she says. "You gonna want any help with the bed Yang?"

Yang lifts her head and shakes it.

"Okay. Let me know if you do though?" Coco says.

She heads back inside, leaving the door open, at least until Yatsuhashi rumbles faintly, "You're letting the bugs in." Then she closes it.

Blake watches Neo. Neo pretends not to watch Blake. Yang starts to lift her feet and stumbles. Blake tries to catch her, but Neo is at her side in an instant, not-so-subtly nudging Blake out of the way as she offers Yang an arm to steady herself. "I'm fine." Yang insists. Neo wordlessly insists on helping Yang back into the house, looking over her shoulder at Blake and smiling beatifically.

 _She's_ fast _,_ Blake thinks to herself as she follows them.

* * *

"Something tells me you didn't bring any luggage." Yang says as she and Blake enter the double bedroom.

"Nothing tangible." Blake says, looking around. She spies a number of Grimm figures on the shelves and smiles. "I'm guessing those are Ruby's."

Yang follows Blake's line of sight. "Yup." she says. "She went through a major collecting phase. I think the really valuable ones are still in storage."

Blake watches Yang as Yang sorts through the closet. It's only natural that her eyes linger in certain places. "Uhh..." Yang says. Blake blinks. Yang turns. "Think these sheets could use a wash." She holds out a bundle of sheets. They're white, which makes it even easier for Blake to tell they're covered in dust.

"That's fine." Blake says.

"Really?" Yang scrunches up her face as if trying to contain a sneeze. "I didn't know how tired you were after your trip. Thought maybe you could use a nap."

Blake smiles another quarter-incher. "I appreciate you not saying 'a cat nap'." she says.

"Why would I? You just said it for me." Yang sneezes with her mouth closed. The wayward tuft of hair atop her head bounces. It's adorable. "Okay. Laundry time." She grins sheepishly before she leaves the room.

Blake wanders around, peering at the titles on Yang's shelves. _There's a lot of Nero Wolfe,_ she says to herself in surprise. _Nice._ Her heart thumps when she sees The Man With Two Souls. "No Ninjas of Love," she muses. "But that's probably not her cup of tea."

She opens the top drawer of the rightmost nightstand, intending to put her Scroll in it. To her surprise there's something already in there.

When Yang returns, Blake holds up the little box she'd found. "What is this?" she asks, her eyes wide.

Yang's eyes grow wide too. "I don't know." she breathes. "I've never seen it before."

The lid of the small box is transparent. Inside is a bone.

"Is it one of yours?" Blake asks.

Yang frowns. "I don't think so. I mean, for all I know, my other arm's still back at Beacon..."

Blake is tempted to reach over and touch Yang for support, but something in Yang's expression makes her hesitate. Instead she scrutinizes her find. "It doesn't look like it'd be a bone from an arm, or anything that's attached to one. It's too short and too big."

"You're right." Yang says. "Where was it?"

"It was in Ruby's nightstand. I went to put my Scroll away, and I felt the container sliding around."

"What?" Yang looks even more confused. "I'm gonna show this to dad. You should come; you're the one who found it."

* * *

"Dad!"

Taiyang looks up as Blake and Yang enter the kitchen.

"Blake found this in Ruby's nightstand." Yang sets the container on the table. "Did you know about it?"

"No," he readily admits. "But..." He looks at it for a long moment. "I think I know where it came from."

Yang watches him as he gets up and stares out the window. "Well?" she asks.

He heaves a sigh. "You remember Port and Oobleck?" Yang nods. "They didn't come here just to talk. See, after the battle, your uncle Qrow was one of the Huntsmen roaming the grounds, looking for survivors. He found that-" He points to the box. "-on top of the tower."

"The tower? That means-"

He nods. "Yeah. It's one of hers."

 _Pyrrha._ Yang's eyes fill with tears.

"How'd it end up here?" Blake asks.

"That's where we get into uncertain territory." Taiyang says. "Qrow said when he found it, he gave it to...Jaune, right? He figured, what with him being leader of her team and everything, he should be the one to decide what should be done with it." He frowns. "I guess Jaune put it in Ruby's nightstand when they were talking about running away. Didn't know what to do."

He and Blake look at it, while Yang wipes her eyes on the sleeve of her jacket. "Port and Oobleck?" she manages to ask after a while.

Taiyang sighs again. "They came here, at least in part, to look for it. They said Glynda wanted to know what had happened."

"Glynda? Why?" Blake asks.

"Got me." Taiyang says.

Blake frowns. "Coco said something about being called back to Beacon. What's it like there?"

Taiyang shakes his head. "Not good. Even with the number Ruby did on it, that dragon is still calling in more Grimm every day. At Glynda's request, a couple of teams from the Festival have stuck around to help thin out the hoard..." He looks out the window. A strange expression flickers across his face.

"There's something you're not telling us." Blake says accusingly.

"I...I can't."

"Why?" Blake and Yang say almost in unison.

His shoulders sag. "You're never gonna let me hear the end of this, are you? You really wanna know?"

"Yes!" they cry.

He steps away from the window and closes the kitchen door, but not before taking a long look around the living room. "Have to keep this away from prying ears." he says. Then he stands in front of them at the table. "What I'm about to tell you is beyond confidential. Got it? You can't even tell your team."

"What team?" Yang asks. Blake winces internally.

"I know it's just the two of you right now, but you're going to go after your sister Yang. I can feel it." Taiyang says. "And when you do, you absolutely cannot tell her what I'm about to tell you. Or Weiss. You can't tell _either of them_."

"How come?" Yang asks.

"Your sister is smart, but she's also young." Taiyang says. "If she tells anyone, or if anyone happens to overhear you telling her, things could get a whole lot worse."

"How much worse?" Blake asks, growing tired of all the secrecy.

He looks between them solemnly. "Do you promise not to tell anyone?" he asks.

"I...I promise." Yang says.

"Even Ruby?"

"Even Ruby..." Yang affirms, looking downcast.

"Okay." He looks at Blake. "What about you?"

She shrugs. "I've been keeping secrets all my life. One more's not going to hurt."

"Of course it can." Not-Adam says over her shoulder. She closes her eyes.

"That's not a promise." Taiyang says, folding his arms.

"Fine. I promise." Blake wishes she could start warming up to this man, but he's not making it easy for her.

"Okay." He uncrosses his arms and takes a look around the kitchen before he beckons Yang and Blake closer. "There's something there, at Beacon. Ozpin used to believe it was...divine in origin."

Yang laughs. It's the only thing she can think of doing. "Divine origin? Are you sure we're talking about the same Oz here?"

"I'm serious Yang." Taiyang says. "He said it was one of four, that in the wrong hands, or even the right ones, they could be used to literally reshape the world."

Yang frowns. She leans back. "Okay-" she begins, leaning in close again. "What does that have to do with Pyrrha?"

Taiyang throws up his hands. "I don't know. Probably nothing. My information is second-hand and possibly out-of-date. It came from Summer." Yang's eyes grow wide. "Apparently Ozpin told everyone on our team except me. I get the feeling, from a couple things Port and Oobleck said, that Glynda's worried about the Grimm finding it."

"Why did she tell you?" Blake asks. "Summer, I mean."

"Summer never liked keeping secrets. It was one of the things she and Raven argued about. But...now that she's gone... They're _both_ gone..." Blake can see the years of sorrow on his face. She still can't seem to bring herself to like him. "Anyway." Taiyang says abruptly. "Glynda wanted it. The bone. I don't remember a lot of what we talked about that night; you can thank the alcohol for that. But I owe them. I think we should give it to 'em."

"Wait, didn't you say Qrow wanted Jaune to have it?" Yang says.

"What Qrow wants stopped being relevant the moment he took after your sister. I'm the one in charge here." He picks the box up off the table and leaves the room.

"Dad!" Yang chases him to the front door. "Blake found it. And Pyrrha was our friend. Don't we have a say in this?"

Taiyang turns. "There's more at stake than friendship Yang. And this?" He holds up the box. "This isn't her. It's a bit of calcium." He lowers his voice, aware of CFVY watching them from the sofa. "I don't know what they want it for. And frankly, I'm not going to ask. Like I said, I owe them." With that, he leaves.

* * *

Yang stares at the door long after it's shut, her mouth open.

"Is he always like that?" Blake asks.

Yang closes her mouth. "He probably has a lot on his mind." she says slowly. "Come on. I bet the sheets are ready."

Blake follows her, not saying a word while they wait for the sheets to finish their journey through both the washer and the dryer. Only when they're upstairs and Yang is insisting on making the bed herself does Blake say anything.

"Your dad completely disregarded everything you had to say." she says, crossing her arms.

"He's older." Yang says as she lifts up the mattress. "Wiser. He actually has friends in the world."

"I'll grant you the first one, but he does not look wiser from where I'm standing."

"We must've caught him on a bad day," Yang says. "And I'm not sure you're an impartial judge." She smiles under her shoulder at Blake.

Blake sighs. "I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He is your father. But I reserve the right to both an opinion and to speak my mind about it."

"You wouldn't be Blake if you didn't." Yang says. She finishes tucking the blanket in and straightens up, proudly putting her hands on her hips. "Come on. Try 'er out."

Blake sits down. "It's a nice bed." she says.

"My baby sister's slept on it every night she's been home." Yang says, sounding even prouder than before.

"But you're gonna let Blake sleep on it." someone says. Yang's smile freezes. "You let Neo wear my clothes. Are you that desperate to replace me?"

"Uh..." Yang says.

Blake frowns. "What?" she says.

Yang looks flustered. "It- It was Ruby. She said I was trying to replace her."

"Yang, I didn't hear anything. And you are not trying to replace her."

Yang sighs. "Okay. Okay." She sits down on her bed and they stare at each other. "What was the last thing you 'heard', if you...don't mind telling?"

"It was Adam." Blake says bluntly. "He said I was keeping secrets."

"Are you?"

"What kind of secrets would they be if I told them?"

" _Your_ secrets, Blake." Yang says. Blake gulps. "And they can be yours for as long as you want."

"You should- You shouldn't _say_ that." Blake says. She gulps again. "What if they're all secrets like Adam and they come back to hurt us?"

"We'll take them one at a time. Together." Yang frowns. "Not one at a time. We'll take them together as they come, two on one. Or four on one, if and when we-"

"Yang," Blake laughs. Yang shuts up. "I know what you mean. Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Yang wishes she was still wearing her scarf so she could bury her face in it.

The long silence that follows is abruptly broken by Blake's ears standing up straight. She turns to look at the door at the same moment that Yang first hears it: muffled words coming through the walls at them.

 _"Say it's true: 'There's nothing like me and you.'"_

Blake gets up. Yang follows her.

 _"I'm not alone. Tell me you feel it too."_

Blake opens the door. She has to raise her voice to be heard over the music. "Coco? What are you doing?!"

 _"And I would run away, I would run away, yeah yeah..."_

Coco grins at the two of them. "Setting the mood!" she yells. "Is it working?"

"What about Neo?" Yang demands.

 _"I would run away, I would run away with you..."_

Coco reluctantly hits pause on her Scroll. "She's outside somewhere." she says. "What about her?"

"She doesn't like too much noise." Yang says. "And that definitely counts."

"It's not noise!" Coco says. "I'm surprised at you Xiao Long. With as fine a singing voice as you have, you should be more open artistically!"

Yang turns red. "What?" she squeaks. There's no other word for it.

"I _may_ have heard you in the shower a couple times." Coco grins again.

Yang buries her face in her prosthetic hand. "Did you really have to say that to _day_?"

"Sorry." Coco says. It's impossible to tell if she really is. "I'm going back downstairs." She points at her Scroll. "It's a good song." she says. "Very apropos. I'll send it to you."

"You do that." Blake says. Only when Coco's out of sight does she crack a quarter-inch-smile. "Yang." she says. "Remember we used to share a room with two other girls. I already knew you sing in the shower."

Yang adds her other hand to her face. "Right..." she moans.

Eventually she straightens back up with a sigh. "It's getting late." she says. "Oh! My turn to cook dinner. Unless you wanna help."

Blake shakes her head. "I'm no good at cooking. I have shouted at a pie."

Yang cracks a smile. "I'd pay good money to see that."

"Your insurance might, when I burn the house down."

Yang cackles. "Oh you are _good_!" She holds up her hand and Blake gently slaps it with her own, grateful Yang didn't choose her right arm for the job.

* * *

Yang makes steak for dinner, as well as a salad that has a suspicious assortment of red, white, black and yellow things in it. "Sorry there's no fish." she apologizes as Blake and CFVY dig in, Neo having once again refused to join them.

"It's fine." Blake says through the food in her mouth. She imagines Weiss side-eyeing her and forces herself to chew thoroughly and swallow before she finishes speaking. "If you have something too often, it starts to lose its charm."

"I hope that's not a metaphor for anything besides fish." Yang jokes.

"It's not." Blake hastens to say.

"Okay okay. Eat up!"

CFVY once again offers to help with the dishes when dinner is over. "I _could_ use an extra hand." Yang admits to Blake. "Don't wanna risk this bad girl under water yet." She takes it off with a wince and sets it to one side.

"I can help." Blake says.

"Nuh uh. You're the newest guest. Plus, you don't even like water."

"I'm your friend." Blake says, reaching for a plate.

"I'm your friend too!" Yang says with a too-thin smile as she reaches for the same one.

One of them fumbles, and the plate shatters on the floor.

Blake flinches.

"And as your friend," Yang continues as if nothing happened. "I'm suggesting that you get some sleep. I'm sure it's been a long day. And Yatsu can help me!" Yatsuhashi nods.

Blake recovers slowly from the sudden noise. She frowns. "Okay." she says.

She's about to head for the door when Yang stops her again. "Uh uh uh!" she says. "Gotta make sure this mess I made is all cleaned up. Don't want you cutting yourself on accident."

Blake looks away. "Right..."

* * *

She finds herself walking upstairs with Coco, the older girl pointing to her teeth by way of explanation, even though Blake hadn't asked.

"Did Yang seem...off to you just now?" Blake finally asks.

"Ye-ep." Coco says. "She's overdoing her mom-thing."

"The what?"

"She's got this need to take care of people." Coco says. "It took a while for it to kick in with us, maybe because of how bad her depression was." Inside, Blake winces. "But when it did, it looked just like that."

"How'd you snap her out of it?"

Coco says grimly, "What makes you think we were able to?"

She tells Blake to stay while she brushes her teeth, and all the while somehow continues the conversation. "I don't know what happened." she says after she spits. "I don't know why you left." she says with her toothbrush in her mouth. "And honestly-" She turns on the faucet. "-at the end of the day it might not matter much to me." She shakes her toothbrush off, washes her face one more time, and looks squarely at Blake's reflection in the mirror. "What _does_ matter is if you stay. And if you and her can get through the issues you have."

"Issues?" Blake asks, though she thinks she already knows the answer.

"Ye-ep." Coco says again. She pats Blake on the shoulder. "See you in the morning." she adds with a faintly terse smile.

* * *

"I thought of something while I was downstairs." Yang says from the door. "You didn't bring PJs did you?"

Blake props herself up on her elbow and shakes her head. "No." she says. "Is that a problem?"

"Not for me. I just wanted to know, in case you could pretend like you did with your Semblance, the way Neo does with hers-"

"Yang, you're-"

"Right. Sorry." Yang comes into the room, sitting down on her bed before saying, "You could always borrow some of mine, but I don't know if they'd fit."

"I'm going without, actually."

Yang is very grateful Blake had been under the covers when she came in. "Oh." she says, blushing profusely.

"What about you?" Blake asks. "I know your Semblance keeps your body temperature pretty high."

"I can turn it down." Yang says. "It's actually something I've been working on, not using my Semblance so much."

"Why? It's part of who you are."

"Yeah." Yang says, her voice trailing upward hesitantly. "I don't want to get too predictable with it though." She fakes a yawn after she takes one of her pills. "Anyway, sleep well."

Blake stares up at the tan ceiling that slopes down toward the head of the bed. _It should slope the other way,_ she thinks. _It's almost claustrophobic like this. It makes me feel small._

"Yang?" Blake whispers.

"Mmmm?" Yang says.

"I'm worried about you."

"You don't have to be." Yang mutters. "I'll be fine."


	33. Chapter 33

Nora opens her eyes. She listens for a moment, then gets out of bed.

Ren turns over. "Nora?" he whispers.

She waves a hand at him. "Go back to sleep." she whispers back. "It's a girl thing."

"You mean-" he asks.

She glares at him fondly. "No! That won't be for a while. Maybe a week. If it's on schedule. Which it never is."

He frowns, then he hears it too. "Oh." he says. "Will you want assistance?"

She shakes her head. "I don't wanna pressure her."

"Well, you know where to find me." Ren says. He rolls back over.

Nora resists the urge to ruffle his hair or boop his nose or something more that she really shouldn't think about before she makes her way to the bathroom and quietly opens the door. Ruby's standing in front of the sink, her hands on the edge and her head bowed as she cries. Nora leans against the frame of the door. The creaking of the wood makes Ruby jump. "Aaah!" she yelps, though not very loudly. "Nora! You startled me!"

"Sorry." Nora says. "I didn't mean to. It would've been even startlier if I just touched your shoulder like in that one movie. Only it's not just the one, cause everyone always tries to imitate it..." She refocuses on Ruby. "How are you?"

Ruby tries to smile. "I'm okay." she says. "I just got something in my eye."

"Want me to look?" Nora asks.

Ruby shakes her head. "No. I mean, no thank you. I just- I just needed to put some water in it." She turns the handles and splashes water on her face, rubbing it vigorously on a towel before she turns and smiles again. "I'm okay." she says again.

"No you're not." Nora says. "I mean you are but you aren't. You're a good person but you're not okay. Know what I mean?"

Ruby avoids Nora's gaze. "No...?" she says shyly.

Nora sighs. "Come on. Let's go up on the roof."

Ruby follows her. "Are we allowed to do that?"

"I'd like to see someone try and stop us!" Nora says, shooting an electric grin over her shoulder. She opens a window in the hall and climbs out. Ruby looks up and down the corridor before she does the same. Nora is waiting for her, clinging to the gutter above. "I'll boost ya up!" she says. Ruby obliges, grateful she's wearing her pajama pants instead of her combat skirt.

Nora grunts a little as Ruby climbs up on top of her and leaps onto the very top part of the roof before crouching down and offering Nora a hand. Nora accepts, almost pulling Ruby over with the force she exerts on Ruby's arm. _She's always been really really strong_ , Ruby thinks. _Not as strong as Pyr-_ As her concentration slips, her balance does too. Nora grabs her by the wrist just before she falls. "Whoa! Thanks!" Ruby says. She only looks down once she's on firmer footing. "I don't know what would've happened if I fell."

"You would've used your Semblance, or you would've gotten right back up once you hit the ground." Nora says. "You're stronger than you think."

Ruby avoids Nora's eyes again. "Not strong enough." she murmurs. "Or...or fast enough."

Nora flops down onto the roof and looks up at the night sky. "I'm gonna ask you again how you are." she says. "And if you say you're okay, I'm gonna scream."

Ruby stares out over the city. She doesn't say anything.

"So? How are you?"

Ruby still doesn't say anything.

"Well it's not 'I'm okay' but I still feel like I'm gonna scream." Nora says.

"How do you do it?" Ruby asks.

"Do what?"

Ruby shrugs. "How do you... Go on? How do you pretend like nothing happened?"

Nora props herself up on her elbows. "I don't pretend like nothing happened." she says. "I don't know _what_ I do."

"Oh..." Ruby says, deflating even more.

"But I CAN tell ya you're doing it wrong. Pretending like nothing happened means you...you keep expecting things to go back to the way things were. And- And they _can't_." Ruby turns at the sound of Nora fighting back tears. She hurries to her side, but Nora waves her off. "I'm fine," she chokes. "I just- I hate it when I cry."

Ruby lays down beside her. "I do too." she says. "And that- Thing with my eyes- It only happened after something really bad. Maybe- Maybe it always will. So I keep- keep everything inside-" She can't talk any more. Nora reaches out and pulls her close, and together they cry.

Nora is the first to force herself to stop crying. Ruby doesn't have it in her to fight it. "You did what you could." Nora whispers. "That's all anyone can ever do. And if it wasn't enough, you get back up and you try to make sure it never happens again." Ruby's tears are soaking into Nora's shirt. Between that and the dirt on the rooftop, Nora knows she'll have to wash it soon, but right now she could only barely care less. "You don't let it define you. You remember her, remember Pyrrha and...all that she stood for, but you don't let that one thing become all that you are."

"How-" Ruby sniffs, wiping her eyes on her nightshirt. "How am I supposed to do both?"

Nora hugs her some more. "I don't know." she admits. "But when you find out you tell me okay?"

Ruby nods as best as she can.


	34. Chapter 34

The next morning, Yang rolls over onto her right side. Her eyes open for a moment, but a moment is all she needs to notice bright golden eyes gazing back at her from the other bed. Her heart thumps. _She's_ here _,_ she thinks.

"Hey." she mumbles.

"Hey." Blake says.

"How long've you been 'wake?" Yang asks.

Blake manages to convey a shrug without actually moving her shoulders.

"Okay." Yang says, rubbing her eyes. "Follow-up." She sits up and flexes. "You like what you see?"

Blake very nearly blushes. "Most of it." Sometime during the night Yang had taken off her jacket. When she raises her arm, her orange shirt rides up, giving Blake a long unimpeded look at Yang's tummy.

Yang's face freezes. "Only most of it?"

Blake gets up and pads noiselessly across the floor to sit on Yang's bed. "Can I...?"

Yang nods, even though she has no idea what Blake is asking permission for.

With trembling hands, Blake reaches out and touches the stump of Yang's right arm. Yang hisses. "Does it hurt?" Blake asks.

"Not right now." Yang says truthfully. "Just caught me by surprise."

Blake nods. She presses her lips to the end of Yang's stump. "I'm sorry." she whispers. A tear falls from her face onto the bedspread. "Every moment of every day, I am so sorry."

"Sshh." Yang says. She reaches for Blake's hand. "Let's not worry about that right now."

"When, Yang?" Blake bursts out. "When are we going to talk about everything that happened? You don't know what I've been through, and I don't know what you-"

Yang smiles crookedly. "I've been sitting here at home for the most part. It took me a long time to get my head back in the game."

"That doesn't answer my question," Blake begins, but Yang puts a finger to her lips.

"We just woke up." Yang says. "At least I did. Give us some time. You've only been back for less than a day."

Blake feels like she should argue. Instead she relents. "What's the plan for today?" she asks.

Yang shrugs. "I dunno." she says. "At least that much hasn't changed."

* * *

When they manage to get downstairs, they're all alone. From a living room window Yang can see Coco, Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi taking it in turns to spar with each other. The door to the guest room had still been closed as they passed it, so she guesses Neo's still in bed. _Either Dad spent the night at Beacon, or he's already off to work..._

"Bacon and eggs okay?" she asks Blake.

Blake nods.

"Good. Wasn't sure if it was a Faunus thing, or-" Yang doesn't finish her sentence until the eggs are on the griddle. "Neo being here has kind of made me a little more sensitive to that. She hung around with Roman, and you know what _he_ was like."

Blake certainly does. "Why is she here though?" she asks.

Yang shrugs. "She came by one day when Sun was here. Beat me good again, but then she..." Her voice trails off. "I don't know. She really seems to care about me, and I don't know why."

"What do you mean?"

"She offered to listen. To _me_. More than once, even. I kinda took her up on it. Between one thing and another they ended up stopping a little while ago."

The food is ready. Yang sets it down on the table. "What about you?" she asks as she serves Blake. "What've you been up to? If...if you wanna talk."

"I went back to Menagerie. My mom and dad were nicer than they had any reason to be." Yang frowns. "But my past caught up to me. Again. I decided I was done running."

Yang takes a bite of her eggs. "Your parents must be awesome." she says through her food. If Weiss was here she'd have a fit. Maybe that's why Yang does it.

"They are." Blake tries the bacon. It's sinfully good. She finishes two pieces before she says, "They're actually the ones in charge of Menagerie."

Yang almost chokes on a sip of water. "Seriously?" she coughs. "You're royalty or something?"

Blake smiles a quarter-inch. "It's not a monarchy. They're more like joint mayors. Dad handles domestic affairs, Mom does everything else."

"Guess I was right. They _are_ awesome." Yang says.

Blake looks at her. "That's it?" she says after Yang gives them both another helping. "You're not going to ask what I did there?"

Yang shrugs. "You'll tell me if you want to. Anyway the eggs are getting cold." Blake takes the hint and continues to eat. "I think, once we get Team RWBY back together," Yang says. "I'm going to make scrambled eggs. White and yellow, for Weiss and me."

"What are you going to do for black and red?" Blake asks.

"Extra crispy hot dogs with ketchup? We could do mustard and mayo too. Oh, but that'd be double the white and yellow, and half of everything else." Zwei wanders in to get a drink of his own. "They're not real dogs." she tells him. "They're like pork or something." Zwei ignores her until he's finished drinking, whereupon he turns around and barks.

When they're done with brunch Blake insists on helping Yang wash up. With no one else indoors, Yang is forced to relent. "Where'd you get the arm?" Blake asks as Yang, wincing, begins to unfasten it.

"Would you believe it's from General Ironwood?"

Blake recalls the perennially stern expression on the General's face, especially when he'd had that talk with them in their dorm. "No." she says.

"Then it's from a fairy godmother." Yang says, putting it down at her place at the table. "Detergent's on the top shelf. Space is at a premium in here."

Blake has to stand on tiptoes to reach. She hears Yang gasp. "What is it?" she asks.

"Is that where he stabbed you?" Yang says.

Blake looks down. Her coat has fallen away just like she'd been afraid it would. She bites her lip. "Yes." she says simply.

"It looks _raw_. Blake, it's been months. You need to have it looked at."

Blake settles down onto the rest of her feet. She puts the detergent on the counter and pulls her coat back around her body. "I did." she says. "It got reopened when I was at my parents' place."

"But-" Yang says.

Blake begins running the dishes under hot water, not saying a word.

"Blake, look at me."

Blake refuses.

"BLAKE."

She finally does.

"Your Aura should have already cleared this up. Maybe not all the way, but it sure wouldn't look _this_ bad." Yang's face softens. "You know what I think?"

"No." Blake says.

"Aura's a reflection of the soul. You don't want yourself to heal."

"I don't want to _heaR_ this." Blake tries to joke. She looks back to the sink.

"Blake, I figured out why you left me, all by myself." She doesn't stop to think about her choice of words. "I forgave you. The only one who wouldn't forgive you is _him_. Don't listen to what he did to you."

"I thought you said I could never be like him." Blake says angrily.

"Yeah. That's not what I just said though. I said you need to forgive yourself. You shouldn't let him keep controlling you."

Blake stops thinking. She stares out the window, scrubbing and rescrubbing the same plate over and over again. Then she finally comes to and puts the plate to one side. She turns off the water. "I know you're...you're probably right." she says. "But it's hard."

"No one said it would be easy." Yang says. She holds out her hand. "I'll be here to help, whatever way I can."

Blake looks at the outstretched hand. She rushes past it and into a startled Yang's embrace. "I love you." she whispers, fierce and fragile all at once.

Yang smiles. Suddenly her eyes widen. "Hey." she says. "I think that's the first time you've ever told me that."

Blake pulls away a bit. "What?"

Yang nods. "Think about it."

Blake does. She thinks all the way back to the first time their lips ever met in the Beacon library. To the morning after the Breach, and that same night, and the afternoon of Yang's performance in the solos round. Her grip tightens on Yang's sleeve.

"You okay?" Yang asks her.

Blake shakes her head. "No," she says. "I love you."

Yang grins. "That sounds okay to me."

They kiss for just a moment. Blake has been paying close attention to the sounds of the fighting still going on outside. But what she does not hear is a lone set of footsteps coming down the stairs.

Neo likes to move quietly. She likes quiet, unless it's a fight, in which case she can handle herself very well, she thinks. And make other people not be quiet, which is fun. She likes it when certain people are a certain kind of not-quiet. She does not like kitty making out with blondie. Only Neo should be allowed to make out with blondie.

She stands invisible in the doorway, watching, adding fuel to her fire. When kitty and blondie break apart, Neo steps to one side as they head upstairs. Together.

 _Mine,_ she thinks.

* * *

After breakfast is done, Yang takes Blake on a tour of the house, including her workout station around back, even though Blake had already seen it the day before.

"This is the tool shed. Got everything we need for minor repairs." Yang thinks her smile's wearing a little thin by now.

"What's under there?" Blake asks, looking at the tarp-covered bundle.

Yang whips back the tarp. "Tada!" she says. "I owe Uncle Qrow big time for bringing Bumblebee back from Beacon." She laughs. "Hey, five Bs." She bonks Blake lightly on top of her head. "Bonking Blake on the bonce, that's another three."

"You're so bad." Blake says.

"We're up to nine! Can I get a ten?"

"Booooooo." Blake says.

"Ding ding ding ding! We have a winner! Your prize, should you choose to accept it, is a kiss from yours truly!" Yang leans forward, puckering her lips dramatically.

Blake follows suit, but she stops just short of mouth-to-mouth contact. "You know what they say?" she whispers.

Yang opens her eyes. "What do they say?" she says.

" _Bee_ careful what you wish for."

"That's ele-"

Blake pounces on Yang in a manner that, if she had seen it in a movie, she would call almost offensively stereotypical. Yang staggers back, attempting to catch Blake in her arms. Blake's assault is relentless. She clasps Yang's head in her hands, peppering her mouth with short sharp kisses. Once, she even uses her teeth, taking tremendous delight in the way it causes Yang to moan. Yang finally comes to rest against Bumblebee, and she tries to maneuver herself into straddling it with approximately one-fourth of her usual brain power. The rest of it seems to be rerouted to other matters.

"Wait." Yang whispers. Her speech is somewhat slurred. "Get the door."

Blake looks over her shoulder. She huffs with irritation and hops out of Yang's grasp. She marches over to the door and pulls it shut. "There." she says. She turns to Yang, and Yang could swear her eyes are glowing at her. "Where were we?"

But Yang shies away from her touch. "Yang?" Blake says, trying not to feel impatient. A girl can have needs after all, needs which this particular girl's body is telling her have been neglected for too long.

"We're moving too fast." Yang says. She's not meeting Blake's gaze any more.

"Yang..." Thinking is hard. "I know for a fact we were seventeen the last time we got this close to...that. The big _it_. We just started planning your birthday party. Not planning, more like brainstor-"

"Blake." Blake stops talking. "I'm not ready." Yang says.

Blake feels like someone dumped a bucket of ice water on her. For a cat Faunus, it's even more unpleasant than for a human. "Ok- Okay..."

"I'm sorry." Yang says. She's still not looking at her.

"No, it's- It's fine. I just..." Blake closes her eyes, and tries her breathing regimen. "Um..."

"What?" Yang says quietly.

"I've been trying to do that thing you were teaching me. It isn't working."

"The mind...thing?" Yang says. She knows she's not usually this bad with words. "Yeah. Um. I've been having trouble with that too. I think Fox does it; maybe we can talk to him."

"We might want to clean up a bit first." Blake offers.

"What?" Yang says again.

"We're coming out of a shed." Yang thinks she should smirk at that, but before she can, Blake continues. "Two girls, one room, very enclosed space."

"Oh." Yang says. "Yeah. That."

She gets up to stand in front of Blake. "Eyes?"

"Check."

"Check. Cheeks?"

"Check."

"Check. Lips?"

Blake frowns. "Check. Thank our Auras." She remembers a scene from Ninjas Of Love where the main character's illicit romance was almost revealed due to that same problem, and their lack of Aura reserves after an intense duel. It had been quite the page-turner, especially because of the nature of the romance scene before it.

"And check." Yang says. "I think that's everything."

"Hold on." Blake says. "Necks?"

"Necks? Wh- Oh. _Hickeys_."

Blake's eyes pick up something in the dim light. "Hold on. I need to open the door." Yang shuts her eyes, and Blake does as she said she would. "Oh. You've got a little-" She touches the spot gently with her hand.

"Thanks." Yang says. She pulls her jacket up to cover it. "We good?"

Blake gives her one more quick look. She's glad Yang has covered her neck. Seeing that spot in brighter light made Blake want to bite her. "We're good." she says.

"Okay." Yang takes a deep breath. "You go out first. I'll hang behind and cover up Bumblebee."

"Yang, that's so transparent. We should go out together, like we've got nothing to hide."

"We're not at school any more Blake. No one's watching."

"You don't know that. And we didn't exactly hide at school."

"We didn't have to. We didn't know-" Yang breaks off abruptly. She looks down at her prosthetic arm.

They both do.

In silence.

"They're definitely getting suspicious now." Blake offers at last.

"Yeah." Yang agrees. "You wanna use your Semblance to come in from another side?"

"They won't have seen me leave." Blake says.

"You're right." Yang clenches her fists. "Again." She shakes her head. "I'm sorry." she says. "I'm just- I'm just not thinking straight. I-" She laughs. "Straight. I just made out with another girl in a shed, and I'm talking about thinking straight."

Blake looks at her closely. "Do you want to talk?" she asks.

"No." Yang admits. She sounds like she just choked back a sob. "But I know- I know you're going to ask."

"No I'm not." Blake says. She opens the door a little wider. "Let's go."

Yang laughs. She looks down at the ground. She's crying all right. "I don't deserve you."

"Yes you do." Blake says. "Don't say that."

Yang laughs again. "I keep expecting someone to- To _demand_ an answer from me. I don't know why. No one's ever done that. I-"

Blake pulls her close. "I'm sorry I made you feel pressured."

"What? That's not what I said." Yang says.

"You're breaking down crying because of something I did. Something _we_ did." Blake whispers.

Yang stiffens. "Oh." she says.

"Mm hm." Blake says gently. She rubs Yang's back in a slow circle while Yang tries to collect herself.

At last Yang stands up. "Okay." she says with a sigh. "Okay. Let's go talk to Fox."

* * *

"Hey Fox?" Yang says. "Blake and I have been having trouble with our mindful...thing."

"You mean mindfulness meditation?" Fox says without turning around.

"Yeah." She looks at Blake. "I would've gotten there eventually." Blake nods slightly. "So...do you think you can help us?" Yang asks.

Fox doesn't respond right away. He takes a deep breath and lets it go before standing up and facing them. "Are you sure?" he says. "You seem troubled."

"Troubled?" Yang repeats.

He turns his head in her direction. "Yes..." he breathes. "You remember what I told you? About the way I 'see'?" She nods. "That's how I know. Your Aura is turbulent. You would have a great deal of trouble if you tried to meditate right now."

"You can see Aura?" Blake says.

He 'looks' at Blake. "Of course. How else do you think I manage to fight as well as I do?"

She shrugs. "Can you see that?"

"I presume you were shrugging? You sound skeptical." He smiles. "I won't offer to prove it to you. But I suggest you take care of Miss Xiao Long. She missed you dearly. Perhaps she still does."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Blake asks. _First Taiyang and now Fox is being cryptic._ Like with Taiyang, she doesn't get an answer.

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Yang yells. "'Take care of yourself'; 'take care of her'! I'm not a kid any more!"

"You didn't let anyone take care of you when you were a kid." Blake says.

Yang explodes. "Because there WASN'T ANYONE!" Fire bursts out all around her. Blake doesn't budge. She trusts Yang.

Seconds pass. One... Two...

The fire disappears, but Yang's eyes remain red for a little while longer. "Sss- Sorry." she pants. "I don't know where that came from."

Fox is silent.

Blake says, "Let's go back inside. Thanks Fox." she adds.

"It's too soon to thank me." he says. "I haven't done anything."

But Yang is shaking her head. "I don't want to go inside." she says. "If I go inside, I have to sit around and _think_ about stuff. And I don't WANT to think about stuff." She turns her back to them. "I'm gonna work out."

Blake watches Yang go. If she was almost anyone else, she would have worry etched all across her face. She's had practice concealing her emotions, however. "Do you think she needs some time alone?" she asks Fox.

Fox also has his back to her. He's facing the tree instead. He says nothing.

"Okay..." With nothing else to do, Blake heads inside.

* * *

"So you just left her on her own again?" Coco says.

Blake doesn't look at her. She tries starting a book. It's not an interesting one. "She said she didn't want to think about things. I made the assumption that she didn't want to talk about things either."

"You know what they say about assuming." Coco says, in a tone that is practically daring Blake to ask what 'they' say.

Blake sighs inwardly. "Do you have a problem with me?" she asks.

"A problem?" Coco asks. "Nooooooo." Blake can feel her ears flatten in annoyance. "It's just, you've been back for almost a day now. I think. And I only heard you say you're sorry _once_."

They're definitely flat now. "I've apologized a lot." Blake snaps.

"Yeah? Has she said you're forgiven?"

" _Yeah_."

Coco doesn't look convinced. "Yang says all sorts of things." she says. "Like 'I'm fine.' Ring any bells? You better hope she meant that one."

"You don't know her like I do." Blake says. "You don't know either of us."

"Oh yeah? Who was here for her when she lost her arm? Her team? Her _partner_?" Coco takes a step forward. "No. It was us. And Sun, who's responsible for us being here... But mostly? Us."

"You wanna play that game?" Blake steps forward as well. "I'm the one who told Sun to look after her. So I'm responsible for you being here as well."

Coco scoffs. "Really? I have a hard time imagining anyone telling that boy what to do." Blake can't really argue with that. She just glares. "Anyway." Coco says, more quietly now. "I don't want her to end up getting hurt again. There's only so much one person can take before they shut down for good."

Blake studies her for a long while before she responds. "I don't want her to get hurt either. And I'll do whatever's in my power to prevent that from happening."

"Love hurts, Blake." Coco says. "Even if you play all your cards right, sometimes bad things happen. It's up to you and whatever's in your power to make sure that you're around to rebuild the damage."

"I intend to be." Blake says. She might have growled a little like her father.

"Good." Coco says. "Then I guess we've got nothing more to talk about." She saunters into the kitchen.

Blake watches her leave. When she's gone, Blake looks around the room for something to do. She sees Zwei in his basket, apparently uninterested in the argument she'd been having. He raises his head as soon as she looks at him and wags his tail.

"Don't you start." she says.

* * *

 _"Jab, Hook, Uppercut; feel my blow when it impacts up your gut. You wanna try to beat the champ, you ain't tough enough. I stick and move through your best, then I counter punch. Man I feint with precision, aim hitting for your brain; cause I train with the wisdom, gain vision through the pain. I will bang through the system, stay vicious in the game. And I'm back forever, you can't stop my reign!"_

Just as the chorus kicks in and Yang's about to start singing along inside her head, Velvet says, "Yang?"

Yang reaches for her Scroll. She turns the volume down a few notches before she returns to her workout. "Yeah?" she asks.

"You've been at this for hours..."

"Really? Hadn't noticed. And that's not me being sarcastic, that's me being awesome." She raises the dumbbell slowly and brings it down just as slowly. "Doing it the old-fashioned way. None of the Beacon machines that told you they increased the weight without actually showing you. No artificial gravity chambers-"

"Yang!"

 _"Put 'em up, show me what you got. I want to see how you rock, if you're great or not. Wanna take my spot, better train to box. I put the game on lock, and my reign won't stop."_

"What?"

Velvet only has to look at her.

"Fine!" Yang hits the pause button. "I'm fine! I feel fine!"

"You don't look fine." Velvet says.

"Well I am!" She goes back to lifting. "Wanna see if I can double it by the time I head out?"

"No." Velvet says. "I want you to slow down."

"Hey, I don't burn out, remember?" Yang says. She wiggles her eyebrows once at Velvet.

"Even with your Aura and Semblance..." Velvet says, her voice trailing off helplessly.

"I'm not even using my Semblance! Doesn't work so good one-on-none." Yang finally sets the dumbbell down and stands up. "Whoo! Okay. That's probably enough for today." She's very proud of the fact that she manages to keep her real arm from shaking.

"This isn't like you Yang. Not the you I saw all last month."

"What can I say? I'm a multifaceted person." Yang grins as she towels herself off. "And every one of those facets are drop-dead _gorgeous_."

Velvet looks at her again. "Have you given any thought at all to when we're going to have that talk?"

"Uh, we're talking right now aren't we?" Yang says. "Yeah!"

"You _know_ what I mean." Velvet says.

Yang notices that Velvet's balled her hands into fists. She decides it's a good time to lay off the act. "Okay." She looks down at the ground. "I haven't actually thought about it." she admits. "It's easier to just _not_ think."

"That's what I was afraid of." Velvet says sadly. She gives Yang a hug.

"I'm really gross and sweaty." Yang says.

"I don't care about that." Velvet says. She hugs Yang harder. "I care about you."

"I know." Yang says. She hugs Velvet back. "I care about you too."

They stay like that for a while. Time ceases to matter. Eventually Yang lets go. "You take first shower, I take second?"

"Not right now." Velvet says. "Coco may get something in mind, and we wouldn't want to use up _all_ the hot water..."

Yang smiles at her, hoping it doesn't falter. She grabs her Scroll and makes sure her workout equipment is secure, before going inside.

She's already stripping off her shirt by the time she gets to the living room. Then she sees Blake. "Hey Blake." she says as casually as she can. "I'm gonna take a shower."

Blake buries her face in her latest book. "Okay." she says.

Yang has gotten very buff again.

Velvet comes in shortly thereafter. "Hi Blake." she says uncomfortably. "Coco told me about the argument you two had."

"It was a frank exchange of views." Blake says. "She saw things one way, I saw them another."

"You just said absolutely nothing." Velvet says.

"No I didn't. I said, 'It was a frank exchange of views. She saw things one way-'"

"You know what I mean!" Velvet says. "That's another thing you and Yang've got in common: You both deflect deflect deflect."

Blake lowers her book. "Really?"

"Yeah." Velvet says, clearly thankful to have gotten through to her. "I tried telling her she's pushing herself too hard, like she's been doing for weeks, but all she did was talk about how awesome she is. You've known her longer than I have, and even _I_ know what that means."

Blake considers this. "I do." she says.

"She didn't promise to stop. The most I could get out of her was her admitting that she was working out instead of thinking. It was like pulling teeth." Velvet sighs. "She promised we'd talk months ago. And you must've seen her when she came in. She looked terrible."

Blake raises her book again. "She looked good to me." _Good enough to eat..._

She can feel Velvet eyeing her. "Huh" is all Velvet says. "Anyway, it was nice talking with you Blake. I hope you won't think too badly of Coco. She's just trying to do what she thinks is right."

"The same could be said for all of us." Blake says. Only when Velvet's almost out of the room does she add, "It was nice talking with you too Velvet."

Velvet smiles shyly and heads into the kitchen.

Blake waits about thirty seconds before she puts her book down and heads upstairs to have a talk with Yang.

Author's Note: Over on AO3 the story's actually finished! Here you'll have to wait 8 more weeks for the final chapter. Also, I don't plan on uploading the sequel here. It's just so much work to use the upload interface here, with seemingly little payoff.


	35. Chapter 35

She knocks on the bathroom door. "Yang? Are you in there?"

"Yyyup." Yang says over the sound of running water. "What's cookin' good-lookin'?"

"Coco and Velvet are worried about you. Coco took it out on me. Velvet at least handled things more maturely."

"Coco? What'd she do? What did she say?"

"She said... I wasn't here for you when you needed me, that she and her team and Sun were instead."

Yang is silent for a moment. "What did _you_ say?"

The unexpected lack of reassurance cuts Blake to the quick. "I- I don't remember."

"Blake? Keep talking. I'm almost done."

Blake sits down with her back against the door. "Velvet- Velvet said you were pushing yourself too hard. She said you've been doing it for a long time, for weeks. She said you do it instead of thinking, or talking. And that's so _you_ Yang. It takes something awful for you to admit you're feeling even a little bad."

The water turns off. "You still there?" Yang says. She sounds like she's rushing.

"Like right now. You're not even answering me. You're just hurrying to dry off so you can hug me and tell me everything will be better."

The door opens. Blake topples backwards.

"Oh my gosh!" Yang says. "Blake!"

"Ow." Blake says. She puts a hand to the back of her head. Suddenly she's crying. Yang looks so far away from here.

"Are you okay?" Yang kneels down and puts her arm underneath her. "Wait, crap. I don't have the other one on."

"Yang." Blake says. "Talk to me. Please. About something that matters. Anything that matters."

"What do you want me to say Blake?" Yang asks desperately. "How messed up I am? Is that what you want to hear?"

"No!" Blake says. "I want to hear the truth."

Yang grimaces. She looks down to the side. Her right side. "I'm gonna try and get you up okay?" she says at last. "We need to go slowly. You hit your head pretty hard."

"Don't worry about me." Blake says. "Aura's taken care of it."

"You sure?"

Blake nods.

"Really sure?"

Blake nods again.

"Okay." _I wish we had Fox here. He could probably tell if you were lying._ Yang stands up. She's only wearing a pair of towels, one for her hair, one for everything else. "You got a nice view from down there I bet."

Blake laughs through her tears. "I'm not actually-" she says. "I just wanted to pretend- Yang, I'd never do that unless you wanted me to."

"I know." Yang says. She holds out her hand. "Up and at 'em."

Blake reaches up. They pull on each other, disregarding the fact that they're both facing the same way, and the fact that the bathroom tile is still wet and slippery.

Blake slips as she tries to turn around. She almost falls face first into Yang's cleavage. "Whoa, Blakey!" Yang laughs to hide her nervousness. "Moving fast!"

"I'm sorry." Blake sniffles.

Yang pulls her close, but not before lifting Blake's head out from between her breasts. "It's all right." she says. "It's fine. Accidents happen."

Blake knows where she's heard those words before. She replayed that scene in her mind so many times during her flight from Vale, wondering what might have happened if she hadn't turned her head. She almost says 'It wasn't an accident' again out of sheer habit, but all that comes out is muffled crying.

Yang rocks her from side to side. "And if it wasn't an accident?" she murmurs lowly. Blake looks up despite herself. Yang is smiling. "I think I'm ready."

"You... What?"

"It'd be easier to show you. Come on." She lets Blake go, offering her hand instead. Blake takes it. Yang walks her back to the double bedroom they're now sharing. "Sit down." Yang says kindly, closing the door behind her, and Blake does. Something tells her to use Yang's bed instead of the one she's borrowing from Ruby. She puts Yang's prosthetic arm on her nightstand and waits.

Yang rummages in the closet for a moment, and comes out holding two candlesticks, with candles, naturally. "Dad bought these after the power went out." she explains.

"Why-" Blake wipes at her eyes. "Why are you bringing them out now? The power's still on."

"You'll see." Yang says. She lights them both and puts one on each of the nightstands. "So Coco sent me that song," she begins. "And it's good, like she said. 'Very apropos.' And it got me thinking..." She blushes. "Well, that, and a certain something we did in the shed, got me thinking." Blake smiles. "I don't know why I reacted like that, but I want to make it up to you."

"You don't have to." Blake says.

"Sure I do. We may be super secret girlfriends but we're still girlfriends." Yang hesitates for a moment. "We are girlfriends, right?"

"Of course." Blake says.

"Okay." Yang smiles nervously. "Just wanted to be sure." She gets up suddenly, heading for the door again. She locks it and flips off the lights. When she comes back, Yang reaches for her Scroll, turning it on and setting it down on Ruby's bed while she looks for something on it. "Here goes!" she says under her breath. She pushes play.

Blake remembers the song from yesterday.

 _"Say it's true: 'There's nothing like me and you.' I'm not alone. Tell me you feel it too, and I would run away. I would run away, yeah yeah. I would run away, I would run away with you."_

Blake looks at Yang. With Adam, she would have wondered if she was being judged for her mistakes. Not with Yang. Yang is so much more.

 _"Cause I...have, I've fallen in love...with you. No, never; I'm never gonna stop falling in love with you..."_

Yang pauses it. "This isn't working." she says with a nervous laugh. "I wanted it to be like in the movies, maybe an adaptation of one of your romance novels. One person proposes to the other while some love song's playing in the background. But it... It doesn't work like that. You can't talk over the song. At least I can't. I get _my_ words mixed up with _their_ words, and-"

"Yang?" Blake says. She has butterflies in her stomach again.

Yang takes a deep breath. She looks at Blake. "Remember what I said in the kitchen? About it being the first time you said you loved me?"

Blake's pretty certain her heart has stopped beating.

"Blake Belladonna," Yang says. She crouches down in front of her. "I love you. Do you want to be...be my first- First-" Even now she can't quite bring herself to say anything even remotely suggestive.

Blake smiles. She's crying again. But she smiles. "Yes I do. I love you Yang."

Yang breaks out into a grin. "Great!" she says. "Gimme one sec." Blake tries not to pout as Yang runs over to Ruby's bed and grabs her Scroll. She hurries back to Blake even faster than she left. "Now, where were we?"

"We were right..." Blake leans forward and stops just as their lips are about to touch, like she had in the shed. "Here." Blake looks into Yang's eyes, each of them daring the other to make the first move.

It's Yang. She kisses Blake with what must be a supernova's worth of force. _She_ is _a sunny dragon,_ Blake thinks as she kisses Yang in return. They fall backward onto the bed, with Blake on top. Somehow she's not surprised.

Yang's tongue flickers into Blake's mouth, more like a snake than a dragon. She grins sheepishly as she moves in for another kiss.

"That's-" Blake kisses her. "-not-" Yang kisses her. "-how-" Blake kisses her. "-you-" Yang kisses her. "-do it." Blake kisses her.

"So? Show me." Yang whispers with that damn grin of hers.

Blake obliges.

Yang fumbles for her Scroll, sneaking quick glances in between having her tongue abducted by Blake. It's a very nice feeling. She finally finds the play button.

 _"Close the door, lay down upon the floor..."_

Blake moves down to Yang's neck. She presses her lips to that spot she'd seen before. Yang writhes underneath her.

 _"And by candlelight, make love to me through the night."_

Blake breaks away. "Are you sure?" she murmurs.

 _"Cause I have run away. I have run away, yeah yeah."_

Yang nods. It's all she can do.

 _"I have run away, run away. I have run away with you."_

Blake pulls Yang up with her. They stumble over and around each other's feet until they reach some empty floor space. Yang fumbles with the towel about her hair.

 _"Cause I...have, I've fallen in love...with you. No, never; I'm never gonna stop falling in love with you... With you..."_

Blake helps her. They spread it on the ground. Blake allows her legs to give way, pulling Yang down with her.

Blake's fingers are going numb. "How did you manage this with one arm?" she grumbles as she tries to undo Yang's second towel.

"I'm awesome." Yang smirks. She puts her hand over Blake's and together they pull the towel away.

 _"And I would run away. I would run away, yeah yeah. I would run away, I would run away with you."_

Blake just stares. "You're so beautiful Yang." she whispers. She's back to crying.

Yang laughs through tears of her own. "Come on." she says. "I want to see you too."

 _"Cause I...have, I've fallen in love...with you. No, never; I'm never gonna stop falling in love with you..."_

Blake's clothes are even more difficult than the towel. She has to stand up in order to really get started. Yang covers her chest with her hand and crosses her legs while she watches Blake flip her hair back and undress. "You're beautiful too." she murmurs.

The song is fading away in the background, a function of the recording rather than the two lovers tuning it out.

 _"With you, my love... With you..."_

Blake looks down. "Yang," she says, smiling as she undoes her pants and steps out of them. "I've probably already seen you in the shower back at Beacon."

"Probably?" Yang says.

"Probably." Blake affirms. "If I did, it was before we- We kissed."

Yang laughs. "We're gonna do a lot more than that!" she says. Now _she's_ feeling butterflies.

Blake slips back down to join Yang on the towel. She's wearing nothing but her bra and panties. Simple and white. _Nice._

"You gonna make me do that before I can do you?" Yang asks with a blush, looking at Blake's bra.

"We don't need it off tonight." Blake says.

"We don't?" Yang says.

Blake rolls her eyes. "What did you think we were going to do once we got here?"

"I don't know." Yang looks flustered. "I thought we'd just see where it went."

"Well I know where I'm going." Blake says with a smirk. She reaches towards the place where Yang's legs meet.

Suddenly Yang goes rigid. Blake doesn't notice right away. "Yang," Blake says, trying to coax her legs apart with her fingers. "I can't..." She lets her voice trail off suggestively. "...if you don't let me."

"Sorry." Yang says through chattering teeth. _Why are they doing that? I'm burning up, I'm not cold._ "I'm just- I'm...nervous." She uncrosses her legs. But the moment she feels Blake getting close to **there** , she clamps them shut again. Blake doesn't even have time to say 'ow' before Yang is breathlessly apologizing. "I'm sorry," she says. "I thought I was ready. I should have been ready. We deserve it. _You_ deserve it."

"It's okay." Blake says, pulling her hand free with a wince. Yang's leg muscles feel as strong as ever. She wipes it on one of the towels, just to be sure, and brings herself back up to look Yang in the eyes once again. "We'll take it as slow as we need to."

"I don't deserve you." Yang whimpers.

"Don't say that." Blake tells her.

"I'm sorry." Yang says as the tears start to come.

Blake gathers her crying girlfriend in her arms and, somewhat to her surprise, manages to lift her off the ground. She carries Yang over to her bed and slips her under the covers. "Get some rest." she says.

She's about to start cleaning when Yang grabs her by the wrist. "Don't." she says. "Don't leave me- Don't leave me again. I don't want to be alone."

"I'm not leaving." Blake says. She can feel tears of her own stinging her eyes. "I'm just gonna put my clothes on."

But Yang doesn't let go.

"Yang." Blake says, not sure why she's trying to argue.

Yang doesn't even dare to look at her. With her one hand busy restraining Blake, she can't, or won't, stop the tears from streaming down her face.

Blake gives in. "Okay." she says. She gets into bed beside Yang. Yang is still holding her tightly by the wrist.

"This all feels-" Yang sniffs. "-so sur- So surreal, you know? It- It wasn't that long- That long ago that I thought I'd gotten over- Over you. And here you are, in our bedr- Not _our_ bedroom, it's- It's Ruby and me-"

"Have you heard anything from her?" Blake asks to avoid the implications of Yang getting over her.

Yang shakes her head. "Mail's not- Mail's not great. Our uncle went after her, not that that- That means anything. We used to- We used to go months without hearing from him." She starts crying again. "She could be hurt. She could be hurt, she could be l- Lying in a ditch some- Somewhere, unconscious, and hurt, or bleeding out and-"

Blake manages to withdraw her hand from Yang's vice-like grip and pull her closer. Her head is against Blake's breasts, but neither of them really care. "I'm sure she's fine. What about Weiss?" she asks.

Yang shakes her head again. "That- That's not surpris-" She hiccups. "-surprising eith- Either. You remember how- How afraid she was of- Of her dad?" Blake nods. "He came to get- Came to get her. Even I could tell he's a real j- A real jerk. I hope she's ok- Okay. Weiss is the best."

"I thought I was the best." Blake says.

Yang laughs. "You know-" She hiccups again. "-you know what I mean." Blake smiles. "Ruby's the best too, I j-" Yang puts her arm around Blake's midriff. "I missed you so much."

Blake closes her eyes and tries to remember this moment in all of its strangeness.

Suddenly the door opens. Yang and Blake look up.

Coco, Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi are standing in the doorway, each with a different expression. Coco, who has the key, is grinning like the cat who stole the milk. ( _Bad metaphor,_ Blake thinks. _Dangit Yang._ ) Fox is the first to speak. "You know, it's times like these that make me glad I can't see." he says with a frown. Velvet is holding her ears over her eyes. Yatsuhashi is as stoic as ever.

Blake pulls the sheets higher around her. "It's not what you think." she mumbles. Yang, who's further away and concealed by Blake's body, seems to be trying to become one with the mattress.

"How can it be anything _besides_ what we think?" Coco says. "Be honest now."

Blake blushes.

"We got worried when you didn't come down for dinner." Coco says. "Guess we know why: you had more important things to munch. Like the carpet."

"COCO!" Velvet screams.

Coco's grin somehow widens. "Have fun, kids. Oh, and remember to put a sock on the doorknob if you're gonna do the do?"

"Coco I will pay you all of my money if you shut up." Velvet says in a high-pitched monotone.

"We're gonna go and get the little lady hammered so she doesn't have to remember this." Coco says, nudging Velvet with her hip. To everyone's relief Velvet manages a nudge back. "Don't get up, I'll lock the door." She does, blowing a kiss as she closes it too.

Blake slowly allows her fingers to unclench the sheets. "That was...less than optimal." she says.

Yang chuckles. "You're telling _me_." she says. After a moment, she adds, "I really hope they don't tell anyone."

"Do you think they will?"

Yang shrugs. "They might let something slip. I doubt anyone at the closest bar will give a darn."

"They might not..." Blake says. "But someone _they_ tell might."

Yang doesn't have to be told who's she worried about now. She can almost feel her missing fingers clenching.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned him." Blake murmurs.

"It happens." Yang says, trying to sound as carefree as she was once able to seem.

They sit there quietly. The candles are almost dead now, stumps, like Yang's missing arm they both can't help stealing glances at.

"I think I figured it out." Yang murmurs at last. Blake looks down at her. "Why I reacted like that."

Blake waits.

"It must have been..." Yang frowns. "Yeah. It was last month. I came out of my room one morning, and Neo was waiting there. She was sleeping off to the side. She got up when I came out. I asked her what she was wearing, cause it looked like she was wearing her outfit from the train."

"She wore that yesterday too." Blake says.

"Her Semblance is illusions. Or something like that. She can make sounds as well as images. I gave her Ruby's Slayer costume when she came. She 'told me' her old clothes got torn up." Yang looks away. Blake can feel Yang growing tense against her. They're still naked. "I'm rambling. She...she put my hand on her throat. And she- She made me touch her. She was only wearing underwear. And a bra. That counts as underwear though. Right?"

"I'm sorry." Blake murmurs.

"Yeah." Yang's stomach continues to churn. "Anyway. Then she pinned me up against the wall and tried to kiss me. You saw how short she is. Her leg came up-" She motions between her own legs.

"What happened next?" Blake asks, even though she's not sure she wants to know. Her heart is already thumping angrily in her chest.

"I told her to stop... And she did." Yang settles back against the pillow. "I guess I lied though. I don't really know why it bugs me."

Blake considers it. "It's probably the first time anyone's ever done that. And I don't think you like her, at least not like that."

Yang almost smiles. "If a guy tried it, I don't think he'd be walking straight for a couple months, Aura or not." For once the _CRUNCH_ of Mercury's leg doesn't flood her mind.

Blake smiles a quarter of an inch.

They continue to sit in silence. The candles gutter and finally die.

Yang slips her head beneath the sheets. Blake watches, almost expecting to feel a hesitant touch somewhere on her body. Nothing happens. "She's right there." Yang says. Her voice is muffled by all the fabric between them. "In the corner. She's watching us."

Blake looks at all three of the other corners of the room. "I don't see anything."

"Could you go and check?" Yang says.

Wordlessly Blake gets up. She walks over to the corner in front of Yang's bed. She stands in it for a moment, trying to reach out with her Aura to feel if anything's amiss. _Nothing here,_ she thinks. She walks to the corner that's farthest away from Yang. _Nothing here either._ Same with the last one. "They're all empty." she says.

Yang seems to sigh. She pokes her head out for a moment, but dives right back in. "It didn't work." she says. "She's still there."

Blake makes her way back to Yang's bed. "I'm not judging." she feels the need to tell her. "I've had my share of unwelcome images."

Yang puts her hand on Blake's thigh. "I'm sorry." she says.

Blake puts her hand on top of Yang's. She doesn't say anything.

Eventually Yang's hand starts to wander. Blake's spine tingles in anticipation. She takes a breath as Yang's hand comes to rest on her stomach. "Can I see it?" Yang asks. Blake closes her eyes. She nods reluctantly. She can feel Yang moving next to her. The sheets are pulled away. "I think it looks better, don't you?"

Blake opens her eyes and looks down at her scar. Yang moves her hand so Blake can see. "It looks the same." she says.

"Really? Maybe it's just me." Yang says. Her hand closes in again, gently stroking it. "Or maybe it's just seeing you like this." Yang says quietly.

"Are you doing this cause I look like a cat?" Blake asks with a quarter-inch-smile.

Yang blushes. "No." she says. "I'm doing it...because I want to." She continues stroking Blake's scar, stopping only to pull her hand away and kiss it. Then she blows a raspberry.

Blake shrieks. "Yangggg!"

"That's better." Yang says with a grin. "It was getting too serious in here."

Blake pretends to glare. Yang just keeps on grinning. "Come here." Blake growls at last.

Yang yelps as Blake lifts her face up by her chin and kisses Yang almost squarely on the mouth. "We need to do that more often." she pants when the kiss ends.

Blake smiles again in agreement.

Rain starts to fall outside. Yang leans back against Blake as they listen to it. Blake has to stop her hands from trying to wander like Yang's had done. It gets to the point where she has to reach for Yang's hand and hold it with both her own. _I'll get better at this,_ she promises Yang silently.

"Hey," Yang says. "I just had an idea." She sits up. "Put your clothes on."

"Why?" Blake asks.

"You don't really want my dad to look out and see us frolicking naked in the rain do you?"

Every trace of arousal still present in Blake's body instantly evaporates. "No." she says. "I wasn't aware that was something we'd be doing."

"We don't have to." Yang says. "I just thought- And then I remembered you don't really like water..."

"I don't mind it," Blake says, somewhat less than truthfully. "But I'm not going out there in my new outfit."

"So what _are_ you gonna wear?" Yang asks.

Blake has to avert her eyes as Yang gets up to look through her dresser. "I'll think of something."

* * *

"That's not suspicious." Yang laughs.

Blake doesn't need to pretend to glare this time. "They're _your pajamas_." she says.

"It's just water!" Yang wheedles.

"'It's just water' until one of us falls in the mud." Blake says.

"Is that a challenge?" Yang says, hand on her hip.

"Only if you want it to be." Blake smirks.

"Oh, you're going _down_." Yang draws a line in the mud with her foot and settles into a fighting stance.

Blake throws off the bathrobe and lunges forward in one seamless motion.

Yang finds herself on the defensive. "You've gotten stronger." she grunts as she blocks a punch.

Blake flips sides, grabbing the bathrobe out of the air and laying it out over the railing before she comes back to Yang with another punch at the ready. Yang leaps into the air, using Blake's own arm as a springboard to vault over her head. "'Boop,'" she says as she passes.

Blake stumbles, caught off-balance by the sudden weight on her arm and the feather-light touch of Yang's finger on her nose. She corrects herself almost immediately. "And you've gotten better at dodging." she says to stall for time.

"Why take the hit when you don't have to?" Yang says. "Something my dad taught me."

That brings Blake back to something she remembers Yang saying last night. "You said...you're not using your Semblance." Blake says. It's her turn to grunt as Yang switches to the offensive. "Does that mean you're taking my job of...wearing out the enemy?"

Yang frowns. Her concentration falters, allowing Blake to dip under her guard and hit her in the ribs. "No- Ow! No," she says. "I'm just trying to be not so predictable."

"You're not predictable." Blake chides her. "You're one of the most creative fighters I've seen. But your Aura's not as attuned to dodging or playing strict defense like mine." To prove her point, she calls up two shadow clones and has them attack from different directions. While Yang is distracted, Blake doubles up on her from behind. Yang falls with a groan. "You're not using your own style any more. It's an amalgamation of a bunch of different people; if I had to guess I'd say CFVY. You've got all these moves in your head at any given moment, and they're overwhelming you."

Yang rolls over. Her face is smudged with dirt. "So what you're saying is I'm not good enough to go anywhere." she says.

Blake crouches down beside Yang. "I'm saying you need to trust yourself. Trust your instincts."

Yang gets a faraway look in her eyes. "Last time I did that I almost killed someone."

"What?"

"I said dad bought the candles after the power went out, right?" Blake nods. "Well, Velvet and I went into Signal the night it happened. It was raining then too. A lot harder than this. Junior Xiong was there. He's a small-time crook out of Vale," Yang adds, seeing the look on Blake's face. "I went to his club once to ask about my mother. Getting out was literally a blast." She smiles slightly. "Anyway, the night the power went out he had his two girls with him again. I'm guessing they held a grudge over the way I beat them in the club. I kind of started a fight with one of them. It was stupid." Yang shakes her head. "I just wanted to feel something again."

Suddenly Blake disappears.

"Blake?" Yang looks up.

Before she has time to worry if the wonder of the past couple days had all been a dream, Blake reappears beside her, laying the bathrobe on the ground and lying down on top of it. "Legs were getting tired." she says. "Go ahead?"

Yang breathes a sigh of relief. "Okay." She closes her eyes. "We took it into the training room at least. But she cleaned my clock. Don't do too well with kickers, even when I was at my best."

Blake puts a hand on Yang's shoulder.

"My Aura was almost gone. I didn't have Ember Celica. I didn't go there expecting a fight; I didn't even _want_ one." Yang shrugs. "I just sort of...snapped. There was fire everywhere. Junior said it wasn't my Semblance, but what else could it be?"

Blake watches Yang's face closely as she tries to think of what to say. The rain continues to fall. Even Blake's spectacular eyesight can't tell if Yang is crying or not.

"That's when you stopped using your Semblance." she says. "And when you started fighting differently."

Yang nods. "My dad... He was so _angry_. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't throw anything. He didn't hit me. But I could tell." Her voice is different when she adds, "I never wanted to disappoint him."

Blake rolls over to look up into the sky. Her left hand leaves Yang's shoulder, but her right hand finds Yang's left.

"You probably hate me now huh?" Yang sniffs. "You probably think- I'm as bad as Adam."

"You're not giving me much to go on." Blake admits. "But there's a big difference between the two of you." Blake can tell Yang's listening intently. "You feel bad."

Yang laughs. "Boy isn't that the truth." she says.

The rain drizzles out. The clouds begin to part. The stars appear. Somewhere close by a bird squawks.

Finally Blake says. "It's late. Probably way past late. We should go to bed."

Yang rubs her eyes. "Yeah." She stands up, wincing as the mud relinquishes her clothes. "I'm a total mess though."

"Another shower wouldn't kill you." Blake says. "It's just water, right?"

Yang sticks her tongue out. Blake stands up as well, bundling the bathrobe in on itself so she doesn't get any more mud on the pajamas Yang lent her. "You shower, and I'll put things in the wash. I'll even clean up the room because I'm nice like that."

"Oh yeah?" Yang puts her hand on her hip. "Bet I can race you back there."

"No racing." Blake says. She puts her free hand on Yang's face and kisses her. She tastes like crystal clear rainwater and a bit of salt at the same time. "It's time to rest."

"Mmleh," Yang says, sticking her tongue out into Blake's mouth. Blake laughs and kisses her again.


	36. Chapter 36

The sun somehow manages to shine right into Yang's face the next morning. She clamps a pillow over her head, not even moving it when Blake sits down on the edge of her bed, puts a hand on her shoulder and says, "Yang."

Yang makes a noise. She rolls over.

"I'm going to Signal. I want to try and see if they have any records of the fight you had with that girl."

"You don't believe me?" Blake thinks she hears Yang say from underneath the pillow.

"No, I do." Blake says hastily. "You didn't give me a lot of detail though. You made it sound like it was all your fault, and that doesn't seem like you."

"That's not what everyone else thinks." Yang mutters to herself. She can hear the _CRUNCH!_ of Mercury's leg again.

Blake rubs Yang's shoulder slowly. "I'm also going to look for Coco and the others. They didn't come back last night. I want to be sure they- That they're okay."

Yang makes another noise.

"I'll be back this afternoon. I promise. Your dad's taking me with him on his way to work." Blake had not been thrilled per se when Taiyang suggested it a little while ago. But she didn't remember how to get to Signal, and she also wanted to probe him about the way he treated his daughter.

"You promise?" Yang says.

"Yes I do. I promise." Blake says again. There's a lump in her throat. "You want a kiss before I go?"

Yang makes yet another noise.

"Okay. I'll let you sleep." Blake's hand brushes against the stub of Yang's right arm for a moment. "I love you."

Yang mumbles "I love you too" as Blake leaves the room. She's not sure if Blake hears it.

* * *

Yang somehow manages to haul herself out of bed a few hours later. She puts her prosthetic arm on with a wince, and Weiss's voice comes through loud and clear. "You took your time again." it observes. There's a moment of pain behind Yang's eyes while the AI adjusts to the new memories. "You've been getting _busy_ too." it says primly.

Yang groans. "I do not want to hear this out of you right now. Or ever." She drags herself to the bathroom and tries to sort out her hair.

"Well the real Weiss supported you, so I guess I have to as well." Weiss Junior says. "I can't help but find these memories of you wanting to take things slow somewhat ironic..."

Yang makes a face at herself in the mirror. "Find _that_ ironic." she says.

* * *

In the kitchen, Yang pours herself a glass of orange juice and begins toasting some waffles. As she waits, she wonders, "Why's it so quiet?" Then she remembers. Coco, Fox, Velvet and Yatsuhashi went into town after walking in on Blake and Yang in the same bed together. A little fire starts burning beneath Yang's belly as she remembers the way Blake had looked and felt last night.

"So dad's gone to work, Blake went with him..." She takes a sip of juice. "Guess that leaves just you and me and Neo." Zwei thumps his tail against the ground. She smiles.

He'd been curled up in his bed when she came downstairs, whining as if he was having a bad dream. When she'd scratched between his ears, he'd looked up almost immediately. He'd been wide awake. "What is it boy?" she'd asked him. Unsurprisingly, he'd failed to answer.

Now she sits with him in the kitchen. He has a bowl of dog food off to the side, but he keeps looking up at her. "You want a waffle?" Yang asks. She dangles one in the air above him. He doesn't try to jump up and get it. He just sits there whining.

Suddenly the lights go out. As Yang looks up, she realizes it's more than that. The _sun_ has gone out.

She hurries to a window and looks outside. She can't see anything. She tries the one above the sink, then the one above the oven. She takes a step back in shock.

Neo's standing outside. She's the only thing visible. Everything else is total darkness. Neo is _looking_ at her.

* * *

"Footage got corrupted a little." Taiyang says. "See what I mean though? It's like I told you. She just lost control."

Blake shakes her head. "I don't think that's her Semblance."

"She got hit pretty hard-" Taiyang begins.

"Not _that_ hard." Blake says. "She might've been out of shape, but that still shouldn't have been anything to her."

"You weren't here." Taiyang says. "You don't know what she was like."

"Don't I?"

Taiyang doesn't rise to the bait. "She got winded just from walking to that rock in the clearing. Some days it was all she could do to get out of bed once. I taught her how to fight. I don't know what else it could be besides her Semblance."

"You just said she was out of shape. But even during the Battle of Beacon, she didn't-" Blake frowns. "She couldn't-" There's something there. She _knows_ it.

"Mr Xiao Long?" someone says.

"What is it?" Taiyang says.

Blake clenches her fists and growls. _I was this close!_

"We've found some..." The person coughs. "Er, people in the courtyard. They're very drunk. One of them keeps saying it's time to go home. They keep mentioning your cottage."

Taiyang sighs. "I'll be right there." He turns back to Blake. "I don't know what you're expecting to find, but you've got a couple more minutes at least."

* * *

"I was right." Neo 'says' flatly.

Yang approaches her cautiously. "Neo...?"

"They're going to leave you. Just like I said they would." Her 'voice' lacks inflection, expression, even a discernible gender.

"That... That wasn't a promise. They were just warning me-"

Neo shakes her head. "If they loved you they'd stay."

Her words are like a knife to the chest. "You don't- You don't know them..." Yang tries to say.

"And your dad?" Neo continues. "He leaves you all the time. Left with something important last time. He doesn't love you. Not like you deserve."

"He loves me. He just-"

"Not like you deserve." Neo 'says' again.

Yang looks away, rubbing her eyes on the back of her hand.

Neo comes closer, her expression seeming to soften. "But I love you."

Yang looks up. "You-"

Neo nods. "You really do have a thick head don't you?" She laughs without sound. "But you don't love me. You hardly even notice me."

"I've been trying to get better," Yang says feebly.

"That doesn't mean you can't spend _time_ with me." Neo 'says'. Her expression is angry, but her 'voice' is still blank.

Yang doesn't know what to say.

Zwei growls.

Neo glares at him. "Go fetch yourself." she 'says'. She doesn't say fetch, however.

She looks back at Yang. "If they loved you they'd stay," she 'says' again. "And kitty left you."

"She went to Signal-"

Neo shakes her head again. "She left you in the winter. Alone with tail boy. That's not racist. He has a tail. Not everyone does."

Yang is at a loss for words again.

Neo seems to sigh. She pulls a piece of paper out of nowhere. "Your sister says she's going to Haven."

"Is that from Ruby?" Yang reaches for it, but her fingers pass right through it. "Give it to me!"

Neo shatters. From behind Yang, she 'says', "We could go. Just the two of us. Help her get there, find out about the thing she doesn't want to write about."

"You mean her-" Yang barely stops herself.

"Fair is fair. Kitty left you, you leave kitty."

"That's _horrible_!" Yang turns around.

"It's fair though." Neo 'says'.

Yang hesitates, but only for a moment. "No," she says. "You don't know her either. You don't know what he did to her."

"What does it matter?" Neo 'says'. "She did what she did."

"It matters, because..." Yang's eyes become red. Her hair starts to smolder. "It just matters, okay?!"

Neo stares at her for a long time. Her mismatched eyes harden. "I can see I'm not going to change your mind." she 'says'. She folds the piece of paper into an airplane and shoots it into the forest.

"Hey!" Yang says. She sprints after it, but stops when she hears what Neo 'says' next.

"You could've helped her. You could've helped me. But instead you hurt me. And now I'm going to hurt her. Remember that the next time you see us."

"Neo!" Yang shouts. She turns around. Neo is gone. "Wait! NEO!"

* * *

"Well, at least they're all wearing clothes..." Taiyang grumbles.

Coco is attempting to climb one of the statues. Yatsuhashi is trying to help. "He looks just like I did!" she says.

"That was a long time ago." Fox mumbles.

"You were blinder then than you are now." Velvet says from the base of the statue.

Coco cackles so hard she falls off the statue. She rolls giddily over to Taiyang and looks up. "Hey papa Long." she says. "I'm gonna throw up."

"You do that." he says, pulling her to her feet. "Just...somewhere else, okay?"

Velvet looks up as well. "Oh hey Blake." she says. "You've kinda got six ears now, did you know?"

Blake nods hurriedly. "Velvet. When was the last time you emptied your camera's memory? Or... whatever it's called."

Velvet tries to think. "Uhmmmm..." she says. "It must've been before the tournament. Or after? I haven't had much time to take snaps." She cocks her head to the side, wobbling so drastically Blake's almost worried it's going to fall off her neck. "Why? Do you want me to take photos of you? Like, _lewd_ ones? Cause I don't do that. People say I do but I don't."

Blake shakes her head. "No." she says. "Your camera. Can I see it?"

"You mean see it, or..." Blake holds out her hands. "Okay." Velvet fumbles in her bag. "Just a second... just a second..." Her ears prick up. "There!" She passes it to Blake. "Two seconds!"

"Thanks." Blake looks at the box. "Uh, how do I-"

"You want a sp- Speci- Spacific one?" It almost sounds like 'specific', but not quite.

"Yeah. I want to know if you took any during Yang and Weiss's fight in the doubles round."

"Ooh! Those're doooooozies!" Velvet tries to stand up. Blake helps her, pulling on her arm a little too hard in her impatience. "Ow!"

"Sorry." Blake says. "I'm not sure why I'm so anxious..." She hands the box back to Velvet, who fumbles with it for a moment before she produces her camera.

"'ere we are!" she crows.

Blake takes a look. "This is of Coco getting plastered." she says.

"I know!" Velvet says. "I got it turned on!" She nudges Blake. "Geddit? Like you and Y-"

"I got it." Blake says hastily. She looks at Taiyang to see if he'd heard. Luckily, he's trying to pull Coco off the statue again.

Velvet clumsily thumbs through screen after screen. "It's not on here." she says abruptly.

"What?" Blake's heart falls through the ground.

"Yeah." Velvet looks at her. Even in her thoroughly inebriated state she can tell that Blake is upset. "'m sorry." Then her expression brightens. "It might be on one of the backups!" She hurries back to her bag.

Blake watches her, not daring to get her hopes up.

"Blake..." Fox almost hisses.

She jumps. "What?" she snaps.

"We should go home." he says.

She glares at him.

"Something is happening." he says.

She keeps glaring at him.

"Not our home." he says at last. "Yours." He frowns. "No." he says. "Theirs. Hers."

"Hers?" she says. "You mean Yang?"

He nods.

"Found it!" Velvet cries.

Blake whirls around. "Where?" she asks.

"Here!" she says, holding up a black cartridge. "I need something to show it on."

"You can use my Scroll." Taiyang offers. No sooner have the words left his mouth than Blake snatches it away from him and attaches the cartridge to it.

He and Velvet gather around as Blake looks through the photos. Suddenly she sees it. "There!" she says, pointing to a blurry orange smear that's beginning to form a crater on the field.

Even Taiyang sees it. "...Ember Celica?" he asks half-heartedly.

Blake flips to the next picture. "THAT'S Ember Celica." she says. Ember Celica's blast is a tiny red spark in comparison.

Velvet is leaning a little heavily on Blake's shoulder. She's starting to snore.

"So what is it?" Taiyang asks.

Blake smiles, finally at ease. "Vindication." she says.

* * *

CFVY is too drunk to travel, so Taiyang tries sending them to the infirmary. It doesn't go well.

Coco climbs the statue yet again, hollering at the top of her lungs, "You'll never take me alive coppers!" It takes four guards to get her down and subdue her, and all the while she tries to flirt with them.

Fox at least deigns to cooperate, but he's either unable or unwilling to assist the guards in dealing with Coco.

Velvet just vanishes. The last Blake hears, the faculty is close to turning the entire campus upside down looking for her. Blake can't really blame Velvet. Most Faunus have a tendency to run and hide in the face of persecution. Velvet's probably too drunk to realize these guards at least mean well.

Yatsuhashi tries vanishing too as a gesture of solidarity. His stature makes him much easier to find than Velvet.

Everything seems quiet when Blake and Taiyang return to the house. Zwei bounds up to them, looking anxious. "Hey boy!" Taiyang says. "Have the girls been behaving?"

Zwei whines.

Blake finds herself reaching for Gambol Shroud. "Something's not right." she murmurs.

Music can suddenly be heard from somewhere inside. Only Blake can make out the words. _"Ain't she sweet? See her comin' down the street. Now I ask you very confidentially: ain't she sweet?"_

Taiyang seems to agree. "I'll check the outside of the house. You look for Yang."

 _"Ain't she nice? Look her over once or twice. Now I ask you very confidentially: ain't she nice?"_

"Why me?" Blake asks.

He looks at her.

 _"Just cast an eye in her direction. Oh me oh my, ain't that perfection?"_

"...oh." Blake's ears flatten. "Is it really that obvious?"

"Is what obvious?" he says.

"Oh. I thought-" Blake blushes as Taiyang frowns a little at her. "Never mind." she says.

With that, they go their separate ways. Zwei waddles off with Tai, which Blake finds herself somewhat grateful for.

Before she can even make it across the threshold, she notices something. "Power's out." she calls.

"Yeah. The generator's been unplugged." Taiyang shouts back.

She takes a step inside the house, wincing at the noise. There's a Scroll on the living room table. Upon picking it up, she discovers it's been set to repeat a single song with ten seconds between plays: Ain't She Sweet. She turns it off. The sudden silence is oppressive, and with the sun behind thick dark clouds, it would be hard for a human to see anything in here. "I guess Tai made the right call in sending me in." she says to no one in particular.

Her first stop is the kitchen. She checks each of the corners carefully, first with her eyes, then with her hand.

Her Scroll buzzes. She jumps. "Kitchen is clear." she says once she pulls it out and sets it to video.

"So's Yang's workout station." Taiyang says. His voice is growing hard with tension. "You check upstairs?"

"On my way." She uses a shadow clone to help put her Scroll behind Gambol Shroud's pistol component while she aims it, then heads up the stairs. "Guest room empty. Looks like Neo cleared out of here in a hurry."

"I'm calling Signal." Taiyang says. "Soon as you're done meet me out here. We'll sweep the woods again."

 _Again?_ Blake thinks. "Hold on. The door to Yang and Ruby's room is closed." She tries the handle. "Where's the key?"

"My room, on top of the doorframe."

Blake remembers the look in Neo's eyes when she had signed _mine_ the day before yesterday. "We might not have time!" she says. "I'll pay for the repair bill."

"Blake-" Taiyang says. She stops as she's about to raise her foot. "Be careful." he says after a long moment. Too long for Blake's tastes.

She kicks the door down and looks inside, checking to her left to make sure Neo isn't lying in wait. She double-checks with her arm to be sure.

Then she notices who _is_ waiting for her.

Adam.

His sword drips with blood. _Drip. Drip. Drip._

"Welcome back, my darling." he says.

There's a lump on Yang's bed.

It isn't moving.

Blake's heart stops moving too.

"No," she says. "No. You can't- You were in _Mistral_."

"You should have known it was too convenient," Adam says. "The spy sent to watch you _happens_ to be carrying a Scroll with incriminating details in an outdated cipher? And _happens_ to let go of it without so much as a proper fight?" He shakes his head. "Your parents will never know what happened to you. An accident? A rogue Grimm?" He advances toward her.

She shrinks back against the wall, too frightened even to reach for Gambol Shroud.

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

Suddenly something catches her eye. The lump on Yang's bed seems to move.

"Yang!" Blake says. She sprints past Adam in the blink of an eye. "Yang," she whispers through the tears flooding down her face. "Are you okay?"

Beneath the covers the lump moves.

"Go away Blake." it says in Yang's voice. "You're not even here."

Blake's heart lurches. Adam _let_ her go. He wanted her right where she is, next to Yang.

She whirls. His sword is raised. It's pointed right at her.

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

Her mind races. She wonders if she has time to knock him off balance before he impales them both.

But something doesn't add up. The door... The dog...

His sword is in motion. There isn't time. She throws herself over Yang. "I'm sorry." she whispers.

She waits.

Nothing happens.

She waits some more.

Still, nothing happens.

She opens her eyes and looks over her shoulder. His sword seems as if it should be inside her, but it isn't.

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

"Sorry isn't good enough." 'Adam' says in Yang's voice.

Blake's legs give way beneath her. She falls to the floor, where Taiyang finds her several minutes later.

* * *

She opens her eyes again.

"Blake!" Taiyang says. He's crouching in front of her. "What happened?"

"I'm fine." she tells him.

"You didn't answer my question. I heard you talking to someone over the Scroll, you- You said they were in Mistral."

"I don't want to talk about it."

Taiyang frowns. "That makes two of you." He stands up. "I think that's Yang under the blankets. She won't talk to me either."

"Let me try." Blake staggers to her feet and approaches the bed. "Yang? I'm here. I'm real."

"No you're not." Yang says from beneath the covers. "Go away Blake."

Blake gently puts a hand on the lump. "I'm real." she says again. "I promise."

 _Like dad promised he was done drinking?_ Yang thinks to herself. She hates her bitterness as soon as it comes, and says nothing.

There's a commotion downstairs. Blake turns her head.

"That's the folks from Signal." Taiyang says. "I forgot to call them off." He makes his way to where the door should be. "Seems like you've got things under control." he adds, not without a touch of his own bitterness. And he leaves.

Blake doesn't see him go. She rubs her hand back and forth against the lump that is Yang. "What happened?" she asks. "Where's Neo?"

The lump moves a little. "I don't want to talk about it." she mutters.

"Okay." Blake says. She continues rubbing what she thinks to be Yang's shoulder. "I-" She starts to tremble. "When I came in here, I saw- I saw _Adam_. I thought you were dead. I thought he _killed you_ -" She starts to cry.

Gradually the lump uncurls. Purple eyes, streaked with blood from crying, peer out. A hesitant hand reaches for Blake's. Blake sobs all the more when she feels Yang's touch against hers.

Yang fumbles with the covers, finally managing to throw them back as she sits up and pulls Blake close into a hug.

Neither of them have anything to say.


	37. Chapter 37

They're sitting on the couch, all by themselves. Taiyang's gone back to Signal, both to give the headmistress his report on Neo, the criminal they'd been sheltering for over a month, and to check up on CFVY.

Yang's been almost silent this whole time. Taiyang had wanted to know what happened between them to make Neo leave. Yang refused to say. Blake had backed her up, saying, "She'll tell us if and when she wants to."

He hadn't looked happy about it, but at least he'd listened.

They're watching...something on the TV. Blake can't remember what. She's been focused on Yang anyway, who's sitting on the other side of the couch with her arm wrapped around her knees. Whatever it is, it's gone to commercial now. Two old men are discussing something in rapid monotones. Despite their undeniably different faces, Blake has trouble telling them apart.

"Can we agree at least that it's open to interpretation?" one of them says.

"I don't think it's open in a good way," the other one says. "The author raises questions and refuses to answer them. And when he's asked about it he just waves that flag as if it applies to everything. 'Open to interpretation.'"

"But can we agree that it is, regardless of its quality, which, it could be argued, is entirely subjective and based on preconceived notions?"

"I think we can."

"Good, because-"

The second man interrupts. "Just a moment, if I may. I take offense with your tone; I do not believe it's justified at this point in time, and I was under the impression that we were having an earnest debate, not a shouting match."

"I agree with your assessment; I wholeheartedly withdraw my previous comment and the tone with which it was uttered."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The argument continues, but the audio begins to fade. The two old men are revealed to have been on a monitor this entire time, which a third younger man steps in front of.

"There is a time and a place for culture." he says. "For 'earnest debates'. And there's a time for action. We cannot hide our heads in the sand any longer. Tell your councilman to vote yes on Proposition 1912C. We can fight-"

Static fills the airwaves. Yang and Blake both jump.

The man reappears for a moment. "-Grimm." he says. "...fight...White Fan... togeth-" And he's gone.

The image momentarily resolves itself into a green-skinned cartoon man holding a piece of chalk, and other less comprehensible things _._ The only sound to be heard is that of a test pattern.

Then it dissolves again.

The next thing they can clearly see is a golden hallway. At the end is an elevator, in which stands a black shape, swaying gently back and forth. A noise in the background alternates between high and low pitches as a drum beats in a staccato rhythm.

The camera zooms in, slowly at first, then faster, until the black shape is revealed to be a dark-skinned man standing in front of a picture of an eye. He begins to sing in a deep baritone. _"Here is our tree...that primitively grows. And when you go to bed, scarecrows from the far east_ come _to_ eat _...its tender fruits."_

Blake stares at the screen, utterly bewildered. Out of the corner of her eye she can see Yang sitting up a little straighter ( _straight_ , she thinks with an inward smile) and doing the same.

The strange broadcast continues while the man extols the virtues of money against a backdrop of nightmarish imagery. Occasionally another man interjects, wondering how 'we' can know 'we are still human'. _What about us?_ Blake thinks distantly. _What about Faunus?_

She gets an answer at the end of the broadcast. The music builds into a hellish crescendo while the man caresses himself and croons what seems to be the title over and over before suddenly shouting it directly at the camera. A yellow cartoon sponge screams and begins to cry while running away. The image of the green-skinned cartoon man reappears, then it cuts back to static.

One more image slowly fades into view: a glass case, inside of which is Yang's arm, still wearing the other half of Ember Celica. The White Fang's logo appears half a second before Blake turns the screen off.

"Yang," she says.

But Yang is already on her feet. "We have to go." she says, racing up the stairs.

"What do you mean?" Blake finds herself asking, even though she already knows.

"You saw it." Yang says. Blake's hot on her heels. "He's coming for me. I know he is."

"It's my fault." Blake says. Yang looks at her, her eyes still purple but wild. "I told my mom. About us. And... They were spying on me. The White Fang. Ilia must have told someone." Blake sinks down onto Ruby's bed. She doesn't look at Yang.

Yang rushes to her side. "We can fix it," she says, wrapping her arm around Blake in a hug. "We can make it better. But we have to go. Now."

"Go where?" Blake asks feebly.

Yang takes a breath. Her mind is racing. She takes another. "Haven." she says at last. "That's where Ruby's going."

"How would we get there?"

"I can fly us. I've got a license."

Blake blinks. "What? When did-"

"I got it long time ago." Yang says, trying to be airy. "I talked about it on Merlot's island, remember?"

Blake frowns. "Yeah." she says after she has to think about it. "It's been a while hasn't it?"

Yang laughs. "Yup." she says. "Good times." Then she frowns as well. "Oh, but... Getting approved is going to be a problem." She shakes her head. "We'll figure it out. I'll grab my arm, and leave a note for dad-"

"Yang." Blake says. Yang gets up. She hurries to her desk, not saying a word. "Yang!" Yang still doesn't say anything. "We're not in a position to go anywhere. We're still seeing things, and... You've got so much to unpack, with your dad, and with CFVY-"

"'Well, not every story has a neat and tidy ending.'" Yang says. "Good advice from Weiss." She laughs again. "Hey it rhymed."

"Yang, listen to me." Blake says. She puts a hand on Yang's shoulder. Yang shrugs it off. "You're running off adrenaline. I know. I was the same way after Beacon." Yang finally stops. "I'm not saying we can't go eventually. But let's give it some time, talk it over with people."

"Didn't you tell me just last night I need to trust myself? Trust my instincts?" Yang snaps. She turns her head. Her eyes are red. "My instincts are telling me to run. And you're telling me to stay. What am I supposed to do?"

Blake is at a loss. Thankfully, Yang's Scroll starts to chime. Yang pulls it out. "Hello?" she says angrily.

"Yang!" her father's voice says. "I'm still at Signal. Did you see that thing on the TV?"

Yang swallows. Her eyes turn back to purple. "Yeah." she says, a little more calmly. "Blake and I both did."

"The headmistress wants to see you. You're not in any trouble; don't worry. We just want to discuss our options."

"We'll be there soon." She puts her Scroll away. "Sorry." she says. "I should've asked you first."

Blake shakes her head. "It's fine." she says. "I want to go."

"So let's go." Yang hurries out the bedroom door. Blake looks after her for a moment before she follows.

* * *

A guard approaches them as they step into the entrance hall at Signal. "Miss Xiao Long?" they say. "This way please."

Yang and Blake follow. "So much for not being in trouble huh?" Yang says, her shoulders sagging.

"They probably just wanted to be sure you knew the way." Blake says.

"They didn't have to. I mean I _went_ here!" Yang says. She doesn't elaborate.

The guard leads them up a dizzying spiral staircase to the headmistress's office, where Taiyang and a woman Blake can only assume to be the headmistress are waiting for them. There's a metronome slowly ticking away on the woman's desk. _Tick...tick...tick...tick._ "Hey dad." Yang manages to say. Taiyang offers a strained smile. "Mistress Cerise." Yang says to the woman.

The headmistress's smile is more natural than Taiyang's. "In all the years you attended Signal, I don't think I ever once called you into this office." she says. "Not directly. You came up more than once with my daughter, for moral support. I just wish your first time could be under better circumstances."

"Me too." Yang says. Mistress Cerise motions both Yang and Blake toward some empty chairs in a half-circle before her desk. "So... That...thing." Yang begins.

Cerise stretches her hands. "From a preliminary analysis, we're guessing it's intended as a reference to the increased tensions between kingdoms. 'Building walls', and such. There are still many things we don't understand: several of the images onscreen don't match anything our experts have ever seen before."

"With all respect, Headmistress," Taiyang says, and Cerise looks at him. "The cultural influences aren't what we're here to talk about."

"That's correct." Cerise says. "The end of the broadcast appears to have singled you out." She looks back to Yang as she says this. "Do you have any idea why this could be?"

"I do." Blake says. Cerise blinks. Blake introduces herself. "Sorry. Blake Belladonna. I'm Yang's..." She blushes a little. "I'm her girlfriend."

"Ah." Cerise says. "The two of you must have formed the latter half of Team RWBY."

"...Yes." Blake says. "But I have reason to believe that at least one of the people involved in the broadcast is Adam Taurus, leader of an alleged splinter group of the White Fang." Yang twitches slightly when Blake says his name.

Cerise nods. "I recognize the name." she says. "Can you offer any specifics as to why you believe this?"

"He..." Blake takes a deep breath. Yang wishes she was sitting on her other side so she could offer Blake a hand to hold. Instead she just smiles at her. "He's my ex-boyfriend. He's...very determined." Blake clutches her stomach uneasily. "During a recent trip to Menagerie, I told my parents about my relationship with Yang. I wasn't aware at the time that the White Fang had sent someone to spy on me. When I found out however, I confronted the spy, and I... Begged her not to tell anyone. She told me that...she knew where her duty lay. I assume that she informed her superiors, and that _they_ informed Adam."

Cerise frowns. She rubs the arms of her chair with her hands. "That's an awful lot of assumptions." she says slowly. "Let's suppose you're right, on both counts." she says. "Why do you believe your ex-boyfriend took such a roundabout method of confronting the two of you?"

"It wasn't exactly roundabout the first time." Yang mutters.

"Excuse me?"

Yang raises the stub of her right arm. " _He_ did this to me. Blake got it worse."

"I see." Cerise says. "Miss Belladonna?"

Blake narrows her eyes in thought. "I assume, again, that he doesn't know where Yang is now. The broadcast was probably going to go through anyway, and he _persuaded_ the people in charge who thought it up to allow him to add his own message at the end."

Cerise nods. "Tai? I'm sorry I haven't consulted you more in this; she is your daughter after all." she says.

"I'm used to it." Taiyang says. There's a faintly sullen note in his voice. "The way I see it, if this Adam Taurus is as determined as Blake says he is, then it might be only a matter of time before he comes after Yang himself. If he's one of the high-up muckety-mucks, he'll probably have a lot of support." Taiyang shakes his head. "We could bog 'em down in the forest, but a lot of students could end up getting hurt."

"I don't think that's going to happen." Blake says. She's too focused on talking to notice Yang's hand clutching at the arm of her chair. "They'd have to use a lot of airships to get an army here. And with the air travel ban-"

"I agree." Cerise says to Blake. "And an invasion solely for one girl-" She pauses. "Young woman, excuse me. An invasion solely for one young woman he may or may not know that his ex-girlfriend is involved with... It seems excessive. Not to mention the fact that Miss Belladonna is also assuming that he doesn't know where Yang is..."

Adam's words are ringing in Blake's ears. _"And as I set out upon this world and deliver the justice mankind so greatly deserves, I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."_ She looks at Yang. _"Starting with her."_

"You don't know him like I do." Blake says. She reaches over and pats Yang's leg. Yang recoils. Blake tries not to let it bother her.

"Bearing all of this in mind, what do you all think we should do?" Cerise asks.

"We could take an airship." Yang offers after a moment.

"An airship _where_?" Taiyang says.

"I don't know..." Yang mutters. "I still have my pilot's license. I could-" She frowns. "I could help with the evacuation! Sun and his team are from Haven. Maybe they want to go back."

"Yang," Blake says. "What about-"

Yang shakes her head. "Neat and tidy endings, remember?"

Taiyang and Cerise look confused.

"We need time to think about this." Cerise says. "Maybe-"

"I've had time to think about it!" Yang interrupts. "I had the whole walk here, and then the walk _up_ here!"

"I don't think that's enough. You've been through a lot, and a trip to Haven, even by air, isn't something to be taken lightly."

Yang looks at the floor, trying not to cry.

 _Tick...tick...tick...tick..._

Cerise exhales quietly. "As I said, I think we all need time to think about this. In the meantime, I know of one or two excellent psychologists nearby. Perhaps you could meet with one of them."

Yang shrugs. "Maybe." she murmurs. "I kind of just want to talk to Coco and Velvet, and the rest of them." She looks up shyly at Mistress Cerise. "Are they okay?"

Cerise says, "They're recovering from their extensive hangovers in the infirmary. You'll have to speak with the doctor in charge, but I can't imagine they'll be able to carry on a conversation, much less travel, until tomorrow."

Yang nods.

"We can stop in on the way out." Taiyang says. "Thanks again for meeting with us, headmistress."

"No need to thank me." Cerise says. "This was something that needed to be done." She sees them to the door, smiling. But Yang doesn't return it.

"Which way to the infirmary?" she asks her father when they're at the bottom of the staircase once again.

He purses his lips in thought. "This way." he says after a moment. He turns left, adding, "Not used to thinking about it from this angle."

Blake falls in step with Yang. She doesn't say anything, just waits for Yang to speak. "What do I do?" Yang finally asks her. "Everyone's saying 'stay'..."

"I can't make your decision for you," Blake starts to say.

"Please Blake." Yang says. "I just need someone to take charge. Just..." She sighs. "Help me sort my thoughts out."

Blake thinks about it. "You should stay." she says. "You owe it to your friends to say goodbye. And you owe it to yourself to try and recover."

Yang inhales deeply, and lets it go. "You're right." she says. "You're right."

* * *

"Separate beds?" Yang jokes when they arrive. "That must be a first."

Coco groans. "How are you so cheerful?" she mutters without opening her eyes.

"I'm not hungover for one thing." Yang says. She's careful to keep her voice low. She looks over questioningly at Velvet, who's lying flat on her back, her eyes closed, in another bed.

"Where'd they find her?" Blake asks.

"They didn't tell me, I didn't ask." Coco says. She puts a hand to her head. "Could you pass me some water?"

Yang takes the cup from Coco's bedside table and carefully places it in one of Coco's questing hands. "Finally paying you back for that one time." she says.

"You don't have to. But thanks." Coco opens her eyes as she drains the cup and passes it back to Yang. "Velvet had to be sedated." Coco says in response to Yang's continued glances at Coco's unresponsive teammate. "Her Faunus heritage means her hearing's even worse than mine." She frowns. "In that...it's better. More sensitive."

"That makes sense." Yang says. "What about Yatsuhashi? He must've drank more than all the rest of you combined."

Coco smiles weakly. "That lightweight? Not likely." Yatsuhashi groans. Coco raises her voice a little. "Keep it down big guy. The way you couldn't last night. Your team is trying to get some rest."

Yang looks at Yatsuhashi. He raises one finger, turning over with another groan so he can be sure that Coco sees it.

Coco cackles to herself. She raises the same finger. "Right back at you." she says.

They both roll over again. Coco looks odd in a hospital gown. Yang supposes they all would, but Coco especially. She looks pale and tired and very very human.

"Where's Blake?" Coco whispers after a while.

Blake steps forward from behind Yang.

Coco smiles at her. "Good, you're...still here."

Blake doesn't know what to say. Yang sits down on the edge of Coco's bed. Blake looks around for a chair, but there aren't any in reach, and she doesn't think that the noise she would make by pulling one over would be a good thing. So she keeps standing. The doctor comes in. He sees that Coco's busy and starts with Fox first. Their voices are a gentle murmur in the background, a soft low sound to add to all the other soft low sounds: the hum of the machines that keep track of everyone's vitals, the steady beeping of each of the four heartrate monitors, the sounds of students chattering outside in the hall. Yang finds herself nodding off.

"What've you two been up to?" Coco says suddenly. Yang shakes herself awake. "Anything _fun_?"

Yang looks at the wall. "Not really." she says.

Blake fills in for her. "Something happened with Neo." she says. "She's gone."

"Gone?" Coco repeats. Yang nods. "Well. Good riddance." Yang frowns. "Honey, you know I tried giving her a shot. But she did nothing to endear herself to me. And a lot that went the other way."

Yang frowns some more. Blake takes this as an opportunity to leave. "We'll let you get some rest." she says to Coco.

Coco's head is sinking down into the pillow. She makes a noncommittal noise in response.

"Come on Yang." Blake says.

Yang turns her head. "What?" she asks.

"It's time to go."

"Oh." She gets up.

No one makes any attempt to stop them. CFVY seems to be dead to the world for the most part, and the doctor's too busy checking up on them to notice Blake and Yang stepping out into the hallway. It's quiet now that most of the students are in class.

"What should we do?" Blake asks.

Yang shrugs a little. "Where's dad?"

"He said he had to get back to work." Blake frowns. "Are you okay?"

Yang shrugs again. "I'm okay."

"You were right there next to him when he said he had to go."

"I said I'm okay." Yang says. Blake flinches reflexively, even though there's no anger in Yang's voice. There's hardly anything in fact.

"You don't look so good." she says.

"I'm okay. I'm always okay." Yang tries to smile. "'But I'm okay. How are you? Thanks for asking, thanks for asking...'"

Blake watches her uneasily.

"So..." Yang flaps her arms, both her whole one and her stub. "What should we do?"

"I want to help you." Blake says.

"Help me? With what?" Yang says.

"Anything. You seem...kind of out of it." Blake says.

Yang leans back against the wall. She drums her fingers against her side. "I don't know what I want to do." she admits. "I know that's not new. We talked about it way back in...that one place. The mission we went on. But it just feels _worse_ right now."

"What are your options?" Blake asks.

"I don't know." Yang sighs.

"Do you want to know how I see it?" Blake asks. Yang shrugs. Blake presses on anyway. "Option 1: We hang around campus for a while until Coco and her crew are feeling better. Option 2: We go back to the house and...I don't know what. Option 3: We could head into Vale and do some shopping."

"Shopping?" Yang says.

"We could get you some new clothes. Something to wear when we're ready to head out. You didn't seem to have much in your closet."

"I don't know." Yang looks at the wall across from her. "I don't know if I'd be able to choose anything."

"We don't have to make any decisions today. We'll just browse."

Yang continues to stare at the wall across from her. "Is there an option 4?" she asks.

"Probably." Blake says. "Why?"

Yang shrugs. "Good things come in fours, right? Ruby, Weiss, you, and me, I guess."

"You guess?" Yang doesn't respond. "Option 4-" Blake thinks hard. "Option 4, we go find one of those psychologists the headmistress mentioned, and see if we can schedule an appointment."

Yang sighs. "I don't like that." Blake waits. "But I don't like any of the other options either. I..."

"Do you want me to take charge for you again?"

Yang looks over shyly. "Would you?"

Blake nods. "I think we should go shopping. That's what most girls our age are supposed to do, right?"

Yang finally smiles. "When have we ever been normal?"


	38. Chapter 38

Blake gets directions to the port at the front desk. Signal is large enough that even with her recent arrival, she's not sure she'd be able to find her way back there by herself. Yang hangs back, staring at whatever has Blake's attention. When Blake catches her doing it, Yang smiles hesitantly. Blake wants nothing more than to wrap Yang up in an embrace, but her nerves get the better of her.

It's not until they've made it to the port and onto one of the first of the last outbound ships of the day that Blake gets her chance. When she's sure that none of the crew is paying attention, Blake approaches Yang. "Hey." she says.

Yang is staring down into the water. "Hey."

"Is... Is it all right if I hug you?"

"Sure."

Blake does, burying her face in Yang's shoulder. "I wish I could help." she mutters.

Yang puts her arm around Blake in return. The wind whips at her hair. "You _have_." she says.

The sun is low in the sky by the time the ship arrives in the commercial district of Vale.

"Is it all right if I borrow your jacket?" Blake asks.

Yang takes it off. "Sure. It doesn't look like it's gonna rain again though. Can I ask why?"

Blake points at her ears as she drapes Yang's jacket over her head.

"Ohh." Yang says. "The broadcast."

"And Faunus in general." Blake says. They step off the boat and into Vale itself. "How late are the shops open?" she asks.

Yang shakes her head. "I don't know." she says. "Things have changed since the last time I was here." She nods at a boarded-up building. "That used to be a book store. You'd've loved it."

Blake turns her head to stare as they pass. "I saw the books on your shelf." she says when she can't stare at it any more. "I never realized you were into Nero Wolfe as well."

Yang smiles. "Him and Archie. Only the cops call him Larch. I just... I love the way he knows what to say, and the way Wolfe knows what to do."

Blake lowers her voice. "'You are headstrong, and I am magisterial. Our tolerance of each other is a constantly recurring miracle.'"

Yang smiles some more. "I think that applies to Ruby and Weiss a little more."

Blake smiles back at her. "Why can't it apply to all of us?" she asks.

The shop Yang takes them to, Warden Yarn, is about to close as they arrive. The owner reluctantly allows them in while he finishes cleaning up. "Do not touch anything." he says wearily. He doesn't seem to notice that Blake continues to keep the jacket over her head inside.

"We won't." Yang says. She and Blake wander separately, Blake wondering if Ruby got a new outfit before she left for Haven, and if she'd gotten it here as well.

"How about this?" Yang asks after a while.

Blake looks over. "You sure it's got enough belts and zippers on it?"

Yang smirks. "Didn't the Ultimate Odyssey series teach you anything? You can _never_ have too many of those." She turns to the shopkeeper. "How much for this one?"

He names a price.

Yang's eyes go wide. "You're kidding." she says.

He points to the price tag.

"You're not kidding." She rummages through her pockets, taking longer than she feels comfortable with. "Aw man," she says. "I totally left my wallet at home."

The shopkeeper returns to sweeping the floor.

"Can...can you hold it for me?" she asks.

"I have already locked the register." he says.

"Is that a yes?" He shrugs. "Awesome! Thank you so much!" Yang says, practically beaming. Blake's mouth curves upward a quarter of an inch. He grunts in acknowledgment, and they leave.

As they're making their way back to the dock, they pass a group of people who stop and stare. Blake reaches for the jacket self-consciously, but it's not her they're staring at.

Yang goes rigid as she hears one of them mutter, "She's the one who crippled that kid during the tourney."

"Real savage-like." another one agrees.

Yang bolts. Blake blinks. "Yang?" She's already almost out of sight, the last of her hair disappearing around a corner. "Wait!" Blake sets off after her.

A few minutes later she finds Yang crouched down in an alleyway. Blake approaches her cautiously. "I thought everybody would have...forgotten by now..." Yang whispers, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Blake holds out a hand. "We'll find out what happened," she says. But Yang shakes her head.

"It's- It's not gonna matter. It's been so long- Everyone's had time to internalize it." She looks up. "Even you didn't believe me at first..."

Blake's heart hurts. "I made a mistake" is all she can think of to say.

Yang looks back at the ground.

Neither of them says anything. Blake's legs start to hurt as well. She almost crouches down next to Yang, but at the last moment she remembers her white coat and stands back up. "Come on," she says. "It's getting late, and...this alley is disgusting."

"It's no more than I deserve." Yang mutters. "Toss me out with the rest of the trash."

"Stop saying that." Blake snaps. Yang looks up again. "The more you say it, the more you start to really mean it, until you'll let anyone say or do anything to you and you'll just let it happen!" She hauls Yang to her feet and hugs her tight. "I love you Yang." she says. "Hearing you say that...it hurts."

"You hurt me when you ran." Yang mutters.

Blake winces. Her throat closes up suddenly, so that she can't say that she made a mistake again.

"Actions speak louder than words." Yang says. She pulls away. "Don't say that you love me. Show me. Please."

Blake nods. She leans in and kisses Yang on the mouth.

Yang kisses back, hard. Then she kisses Blake again. Her hand goes questing, as does her mouth shortly thereafter. She grumbles upon realizing that Blake's throat is covered by strips of fabric. "I wanted to pay you back for doing that to me yesterday." she says. Blake shivers. "I guess I can live with this though..." And she presses her lips to the crook of Blake's shoulder, near where it meets her neck.

Blake arches her back. "Yang," she whispers. "Remember-" She gasps as Yang hums inquisitively into her shoulder, as if she's completely forgotten. "Remember what- What happened...last _night_..."

"I'm getting better, aren't I?" Yang says. "I can...I can touch you- And you can touch me, if you want..."

"But-" Blake screws up her face in an attempt to concentrate. "Not here. Not now."

Yang stops. She withdraws slowly. "Why not?" she asks.

"I don't want you to keep pushing yourself so hard." Blake says. It's easier to think when Yang's further away like this. "And I definitely don't want our first time to be in here."

"I hadn't heard from Ruby in months!" Yang says abruptly. "I don't know where she is, how she's doing, what she's found... I've looked after her my whole life, but now when she needs me, I'm stuck at home, being _forced_ to 'take it slow' so I don't 'burn out'!" The air around her is starting to shimmer. "Why is everyone trying to live my life for me?!"

"We're not trying to live your life for you." Blake says, trying to stay calm. "We just want to help you get better."

"I AM getting better!" Yang shouts. Her voice bounces loudly off the walls. "Last month I could barely get out of bed!"

"No one is saying that isn't amazing progress!" Blake shouts back. "But you were out of commission for months before that, and you saw how hard I was pushing myself during second semester! I don't want that happening to you!"

Yang growls. Her anger is genuine now. She paces back and forth, her hand clenched so tightly Blake is afraid she'll draw blood. She paces back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until the pressure inside her mind builds to its inevitable crescendo and she screams in frustration. There's a flash of light from her eyes and a hole explosively appears in the brick wall across from her.

Blake recoils. "Was that-?"

Yang puts her hand over her face. "What?" she asks in a pained voice. "Ugh, my eyes are killing me all of a sudden."

"Let me see."

Yang takes her hand away. "I can't _see_." she says.

Blake gently turns Yang's head from side to side. Her pupils are wide and unfocused. And unresponsive. "This should be temporary. If it lasts longer than a few hours, you may need to see someone."

"When did you become an eye doctor?" Yang asks, more impressed than sarcastic.

"I'm not." Blake says as she lets go of Yang's chin. "But there were flashbangs at more than a few of the White Fang rallies I went to. I learned to recognize the symptoms. It's called flash blindness."

"Oh. That's horrible. With Faunus eyesight..." Yang reaches out, feeling for any obstacles.

Blake takes her arm and guides her out of the alley. On the way to the docks, she says in a low voice, "What happened back there. I think that was your...superpower."

"I think that's 'Punch Me I Punch You Back Twice As Hard.'" Yang says. "Really should come up with a snappier name for it."

Blake shakes her head, belatedly realizing how pointless it is with Yang's (hopefully) temporary blindness. "You seem to have something more. Velvet took a photo of you during the tournament. Remember? When you fought with Weiss against..." Blake wracks her brain, trying to remember their names. Yang doesn't say anything. "I think it's also what you used against that girl at Signal."

"It's not my Semblance." Yang finally says. "No one hit me back there in the alley. And...well Miltia hit me a lot."

"We may never know for sure. Your dad seemed as surprised as anyone when we found the photo on one of Velvet's backups. Do you think-" Blake cuts herself off.

"Do I think what?" Yang asks.

"It's nothing." Blake says automatically. "I was wondering if your uncle Qrow would know, but who knows how long it'll be until you get to see him."

"Between that and the you-know-what dad talked about, I've got a lot to ask him." Yang says.

* * *

They take the same boat back to Signal. The only other passengers are a man and a woman in matching tan jackets and red trousers. Blake can't help but overhear a snippet of conversation. "I'm certainly never going back to dresses after this." the woman remarks.

"A great man once said 'there is indeed a season for all things'." the man says. Then he asks, "Have we decided on a name?"

"Robin would work. It suits convention."

"And it's gender neutral. We could both be Robin."

"Mm." the woman says in agreement. She pats down her carrot-colored hair as the wind threatens to make mischief with it.

* * *

"Yang?"

Yang doesn't answer.

"I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but...I think we're lost."

Yang looks up. Her eyes have finally started to recover. Then she looks around. A cold dread seeps through her, starting from her spine. "No we aren't." she says quietly.

"Then where are we?" Blake asks.

"We're almost there" is all Yang says. Behind her she can hear the squeaking of wheels. She stops. The squeaking draws nearer. A little blonde girl passes them, pulling a red wagon behind her. Inside it is an even smaller girl, fast asleep. The two girls seem to glow against the dullness of everything else.

Yang takes a deep breath. "They're not real," she tries to tell herself. "Just memories." Still she finds herself walking after them. The little blonde girl has pigtails. Yang misses wearing pigtails. "Hey." she says. The little girl stops. She turns around, stiff with fright, ready to run as fast as she can. Yang crouches down in front of her. "You'll find her one day." she says. Blake says nothing as Yang seems to converse with the empty air. "Just not...not today. Not there. You should go home." Yang says.

The little girl shakes her head. "I hafta know." she says. She walks away, still dragging the red wagon behind her.

Yang watches. "I was afraid you would say that." She stands up. "Come on," she says to Blake. "It's not far now."

 _But it was far then,_ she thinks to herself as they follow in the little girl's footsteps. _It took all I had to keep walking. I guess some things never change. No matter how strong I become, sometimes it just isn't enough._

The little girl stops. Yang and Blake do too. The trees are comparatively lush in the modern day, but Yang still hears the creaking of dead branches from long ago. "What is this place?" Blake asks.

"I don't know for sure." Yang says. "If I had to guess, this was my parents' first house."

"This was where you went with Ruby. The time you told me about in the lecture hall."

They look up at the decaying house. "Yes it is." Yang says. It still stands tall despite its age and neglect, and to Yang's still-tired eyes it seems even taller, fading away into the gloom. The little girl is about to look inside. "Don't." Yang whispers. But she does. Yang can imagine the eyes lighting up as the Beowolves inside turn towards the door.

 _There's no sense in being afraid,_ she thinks. _What's done is done. They can't hurt you. And they didn't hurt you then. You're going to be okay. So is Ruby._

There's a growl from within. Yang doesn't budge. _It's not real,_ she tells herself. _It's not real._

"Yang! Look out!" Blake cries. She knocks Yang to the ground as something slashes through the air where she had been standing.

"Ow. What's going-" Yang looks up. "Oh. I didn't think they were real. I thought I was-"

"No." Blake says. She helps Yang to her feet. "This one's real."

The Beowolf in front of them is so large it can barely fit through the doorway of the abandoned house. It growls again and flexes its muscles, forcing the doorway apart so it can leave. The walls groan in protest as it straightens up and looks down at them. It has more bone-like growths than the Beowolves they'd been used to fighting. And it's _big_.

"So, uh..." Yang says.

"What?" Blake says, trying to check her ammo while keeping an eye on the Beowolf.

"I don't have Ember Celica. I don't have my _arm_."

"What are you saying?" Blake says, more angrily than she'd intended. _It's the adrenaline talking, that's all._

"I'm saying it might be time for our secret technique."

"You mean..."

"Yup." Yang grabs Blake by her arm. "Run like heck."

And they do. At least until the Beowolf leaps into the air and lands in front of them to cut off their escape. It roars at them, forcing them to cover their faces to block the spittle spewing at them.

"That didn't go well!" Yang shouts.

"I know." Blake shouts back. "Get behind me."

Yang does, just in the nick of time. The Beowolf swipes at Blake, but she catches its paw with Gambol Shroud. The force behind the blow drives her feet backward and into the ground.

Yang helps brace Blake with her own body to avoid losing any more ground. "Are you okay?" she shouts.

"Yeah!" Blake says through gritted teeth. "Count of three. One, two, THREE!" She pushes hard and rolls out of the way so that the paw lands where she'd been. Its claw gets stuck in one of the holes Blake's feet had made.

"You said count of three!" Yang says, having belatedly rolled to the other side.

"That's what I did!" Blake says.

"I didn't know if you meant **on** three or **after** three!" The Beowolf barely even looks at Yang as it wraps its paw around her and tosses her away. "Whoaaa!" She goes flying into the house with a crash. Pieces of the roof fall in on top of her.

"Yang!" Blake cries, about to run to her side until the Beowolf frees its other paw and lunges at her. She deflects the first of its claws and leaves a shadow clone behind, wishing she had some more advanced Dust that would slow the Grimm down instead of her basic rounds. All she can do is point Gambol Shroud behind her and shoot. The Beowolf raises a hand to cover its face, using the other to swipe at the shadow clone until it vanishes. The shots hit the spikes along its forearm and **shatter** while the spikes remain intact.

A fist breaks through the rubble. To Blake's relief, the rest of Yang follows suit. "It's all good." she says. "Toss me the sword!"

Blake leaps up to Yang, already separating Gambol Shroud. She passes Yang the katana and keeps the pistol and sheath for herself. "We can't get too far from each other." she warns her partner, raising the ribbon for emphasis.

"If that's not a metaphor, I don't know what is." Yang laughs.

The Beowolf is getting closer. It seems to favor its right forefoot. Perhaps an old injury.

"Any thoughts?"

"Those boney growths seem to just take my shots. I need to make them count."

"Okay. And this thing doesn't seem as mindless as the other ones. I know you're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but maybe this one's older."

"So it's older, smarter, quicker, and more powerful." Blake looks at Yang. "Isn't there a _better_ way of saying that?"

Yang grins. "I bet Coco's got it on her Scroll."

Blake smiles back. They look at the Grimm. "Ready?"

"Ready."

And they spring into action.


	39. Chapter 39

Some time later, Blake finds herself standing over the Beowolf's corpse as it begins to dissolve. She can't quite remember how they'd gotten to this point. Her memories of the fight are hazy at best.

She glances around. "Yang?" she asks.

"Over here." Yang says. Blake looks in the direction of her voice. She's crouching down and holding out her hand, talking quietly with something only she can see.

Now Blake remembers. The Grimm had been distracted during the fight. It had kept pouncing on thin air, and Yang had blown her top, managing to overpower it with just her one arm before sticking the sword in the back of its head. She hadn't looked glad when the Grimm died, more grimly satisfied. (Blake rolls her eyes internally. _Darnit Yang._ ) Adam would only have been glad if it had been a human...

Blake shakes her head. _Stop thinking about him_ , she chastises herself. She approaches Yang. "We better go. There might be more of them out there."

"Okay." Yang says. She reaches out her hand and acts as if she's stroking something. "I just want a quick look inside."

Blake follows her silently into the ruins of the house.

There isn't much left to search through. Yang lifts aside the rubble near where she had landed, revealing a Scroll. "This is _new_." she breathes. "I mean, not new. It's recent: last year's model. Look at the copyright." She shows Blake the back of the Scroll. "Why would someone leave this here? And... WHO?"

The sun slips further behind the trees. For anyone else, the interior of the house would be thrown into shadow. Not for Blake though. "You can watch it somewhere else. I think we've overstayed our welcome."

Yang tucks the Scroll into a pocket. "You're right." she sighs. "You got everything?"

Wordlessly Blake points a thumb over her shoulder at Gambol Shroud's sheath in affirmation.

"Okay then. Let's see if I remember the way back."

They retrace their steps, Blake making note of the fact that Yang turns left where she'd turned right. "I'm surprised the Grimm could see it." she says.

Yang doesn't look at her. Nor does she have to ask what Blake had in mind. "It was... It was _me_. The last time I went there. She was crying. I was too scared to cry back then. Didn't want to wake Ruby. But she wasn't. The other me I mean."

"There is no other you Yang. It's just you."

"I guess you're right." She finally looks over to Blake. "How about that fight though?" She expects Blake to smile a quarter-inch. She's surprised when she doesn't.

"We were sloppy. We could've ended it half a dozen different times."

Yang huffs. "You sound like Weiss!" she complains. "We got there in the end, didn't we? And no one got hurt. Except the Grimm."

"Maybe this time." Blake says. "But next time?"

"Hey, with any luck it'll be a while til the next time." Yang puts her arm behind her head, the way she used to do with both. "And there's a whole lot of sitting around doing nothing until then."

Blake puts a hand on Yang's shoulder, pulling her to a stop. "Not 'doing nothing'. Talking. You've got a lot of talking to do. We both have."

Yang shrugs her away again. "Talking's overrated. I thought you of all people would understand." She keeps walking.

"Yang!" Blake shouts. She sprints in front of Yang, blocking her path, her ears flat in anger.

For a moment Blake thinks Yang is about to respond in kind. She clenches her fist, but just as quickly unclenches it. "What good would it do?" she asks quietly. "You think one big talk is going to fix everything? Make both of us stop..." She seems to struggle to find the word. "Hallucinating?"

"It's a good way to start." Blake says.

Yang sighs. She walks off the path and leans against a tree. "Suppose you're right." she says. "Suppose we sit down and sing kumbaya until we're all in the mood. Then what?"

"We take things as they come." Blake says. Her arms are folded across her chest. "Like you said."

"Oh! I'll start!" Yang says, raising her hand like she's in class. "'I'm Yang Xiao Long!'" she says in a voice filled with enough phony enthusiasm to make Blake's hair stand on end. "'My birthmom left me right after I was born, and my father's been emotionally distant ever since!'" She stops. Her eyes go wide. "...pretend you didn't hear that, okay?" she says shakily.

Blake stares at Yang, both at a loss for words. Blake starts to talk first. "I-"

A twig snaps. They jump.

"Yats..." a familiar voice moans.

"Better this way." Yatsuhashi Daichi says.

Coco Adel sighs and turns around. "Hey guys." she says. "We uh, we didn't mean to intrude. This is on the way back from Signal, and we just got discharged-"

"It's okay." Yang says, even though she doesn't feel like it is. She looks away.

Blake peers around Coco. "Velvet?" Her fellow Faunus's back is turned, her ears hanging low.

"She's still a little groggy from the anesthetic." Coco says.

Blake frowns. "That isn't all, is it?"

Coco puts a hand on Velvet's shoulder and gently pulls her into an embrace. Velvet shudders. "She doesn't do well with...interpersonal tension." Coco explains.

Blake nods. Her eyes dart from person to person.

No one says anything.

Fox 'looks' at nothing in particular.

Coco looks at Yang.

Yang is still looking away. Her profile is rigid.

It's impossible to tell what Velvet's looking at.

Yatsuhashi looks at Coco. "I'll get the sleeping bags." he says finally.

"Huh?" she says.

"It's a nice night. Too nice to spend indoors."

"Oh!" Coco exclaims, as if that somehow answers everything. "So we're...gonna do it here?"

Yang laughs. "You said 'do it'." Blake looks back at her nervously.

Yatsuhashi shakes his head once. "The clearing." he says, and heads off toward the house.

"You heard the man." Coco says. She leans in and whispers something quietly to Velvet. Velvet mutters something in return. Coco bends over, puts an arm around Velvet's legs and lifts her into the air bridal-style. She walks after Yatsuhashi.

Fox stirs himself from his reverie and approaches Blake and Yang. "You should join us." he says.

"Why?" Yang asks simply.

"I have the feeling you don't want to be alone."

"Yes I do." Yang says without looking at either of them.

"No you don't." Blake says. "You think you deserve to be."

"Don't I?"

"No you don't." Blake says again. "Come on." Yang doesn't budge. "Yang, _please_."

At first she still doesn't budge, but then she sighs. "Whatever." She pushes herself away from the tree and follows Blake and Fox, who walk together in uncomfortable silence. At least until Blake decides to break it.

"How's the hangover?" she asks.

Fox smiles. "It's over." he says. Blake humors him with a groan. "Our Auras are low, but they'll recover in time."

"Why are they low?" Yang says.

"We...overexerted ourselves." Fox says. "And get your minds out of the gutter. It wasn't like that."

Even Yang cracks a smile.

* * *

A short while after they arrive in the clearing, Yatsuhashi returns with CFVY's sleeping bags. "Did you let Tai know?" Coco asks as she helps him lay them out. Yatsuhashi nods once. "Good man." Coco says. She pats him on the butt before she rejoins the rest. "How's everybody going?"

No one says anything. Velvet offers a very slight smile, but that's all the reaction Coco gets.

She sighs. "Really? That didn't get on your nerves at all Blake?"

Blake looks up. "Huh?"

"Wow." Coco sits next to Velvet. "Yang? Talk to us honey. Say something."

"Something." Yang says. She looks at Coco. "Happy?"

 _You know you're not,_ an inner voice says.

Yang shakes her head angrily. "Shut up."

"What?" Velvet says. She'd been talking to Fox, but now she shrinks in on herself in a way that makes Yang's stomach clench.

"No, not you." Yang hastens to say. "It- It was in my head."

"Oh. Okay." Velvet still looks anxious, and Yang feels even worse.

Yatsuhashi starts a carefully controlled fire, which, though physically warming, does not help Yang feel any better inside. She takes off her jacket and bundles it on her lap.

"You can't keep this bottled up forever." Fox says after a while.

"Dad does." Immediately Yang wishes she'd said something else.

"He's not exactly the poster boy of emotional stability." Coco says. "Remember the other day when he stormed out after shouting at you two?"

"You don't know what we were talking about." Yang says. "You shouldn't judge him."

"Can **I** judge him?" Blake asks. "You told me I could."

Yang looks into the fire. "I wish you wouldn't" is all she says.

Blake takes time to consider her words before she sets them loose. "I think...it's admirable the way you stand up for him." she says slowly. "But not everything he does can or should be defended. I said before he completely disregarded what you had to say."

Yang can feel her own fire rising within her. _Stop,_ she tells it. Out loud, she says, "I chewed him out once last month. It didn't make me feel any better."

Coco raises her eyebrows in surprise. Velvet doesn't say anything.

"Instant panaceas don't exist." Blake says. "Sometimes...sometimes the things that need to be done...hurt."

Yang glances sharply at her. By the light of the fire, her eyes seem red. "Are you trying to say something?" Yang says.

Blake looks away. "No." she says. "What I did... It speaks for itself." _I'm useless. I'm a coward._

Yang takes a deep breath, and then lets it out, and then takes another. "I said I forgave you. Right?" Blake still isn't looking at her. "I'm- I'm not sure that I did."

Blake gasps despite herself. Coco takes off her glasses. Velvet presses her face into Yatsuhashi's chest. He holds her close. Fox closes his eyes.

"Hear me out," Yang begins. Blake is already on her feet. She runs away into the forest.

"BLAKE!" Yang shouts. She's on her feet too, but Fox pulls her back.

"Give her space Yang." he says. "Not everything can be solved with a hug."

"Then what's the point?" Yang spits, wrenching her arm from his grasp. "What's the point of doing anything? Huh? If instant cures don't exist, why- Why should I do anything? Why should I _try_ when it _hurts_?!"

She smells something burning. She looks down. Her bandages are on fire. She growls in frustration and claws them off before throwing them into the fire. The air against her stub makes it hurt. She likes the pain. She glares at CFVY, ready to lash out at whatever platitudes they might have.

Velvet is the first to speak, barely audible with her face against Yatsuhashi's chest. "We either keep moving forward, or we don't." She pulls away and looks at Yang. "What do you think the second one would do to the people you care about?"

Yang can feel her anger slipping away at the sight of Velvet's wide brown eyes. "I wish I didn't." she says. "Care. I wish I didn't care."

"But you do care." Coco says gently. "You care more than anyone I've ever met. And it's the fact you care that should give you hope. With everything you've been through, the tournament, your arm, your-" She gestures in the direction Blake had been heading. "And probably other stuff I couldn't begin to guess. With all of that, the fact that you're as sweet and as loving as you are, even towards people who may not deserve it: It's beautiful." She reaches out and takes Yang's hand in hers. " _You're_ beautiful."

"I don't feel beautiful." Yang says. "I hate it. I hate myself."

"Why?" Fox asks simply.

"I just keep...messing up. First the tournament, then my arm, now- Now Blake..."

Velvet closes her eyes. She frowns. "About that." she says. "The tournament. Have you considered...maybe he _did_ attack you?"

"What? What does it matter?" Yang asks. She pulls her hand free from Coco's.

"We don't know where Neo was when it happened. And from what we saw while she was staying here it wouldn't be too far-fetched to assume she had an illusion cast around the ring to make us all see something different..."

Yang's jaw hangs open. She closes it quickly and looks off into the forest. "Oh _god_." She can't tell whether she wants to throw up or scream. "She was right here. Under my nose. Literally. And she- She didn't even hint at it. She just wanted me to-"

She clenches her fist until blood trickles out from between her fingers. Sparks fly from her stump.

"Yang?" Coco says cautiously.

"I need- I need to...be...alone." Yang manages to say. "I don't- I don't want to hurt anyone if- If I lose control again."

"Where are you going?" Velvet asks as Yang is about to leave.

"I need-" Yang is about to repeat herself. She stops. "I'm going to visit my mom. She's on the west side of the island."

"We know." Coco says. "We've been there before."

"Right." It feels like so long ago now.

Yang leaves.

* * *

Blake falls back against a tree, already starting to sob. _Why can't I do anything right?_ she thinks bleakly to herself. _Now even Yang hates me._

"You knew she might. But you came regardless." Not-Adam says from beside her.

"You _wanted_ me to hate you." one of the Yangs says. "And guess what?"

 _But- But she said- But she said she- She didn't._ Her thoughts stop and start like a motor without Dust.

"Yang says all sorts of things." Not-Coco says. She leans in and almost touches Blake's nose again. "Like 'I'm fine.' Ring any bells? Turns out she didn't mean that one either."

Blake buries her face in her hands. She continues crying even when she hears something approaching. _If it's a Grimm, I- I won't fight it. I'll just let it kill me._

But there are none of the other sounds she associates with Grimm. It almost seems like whatever it is is trying to be quiet. She still doesn't look up.

Someone puts their arm around her. "It's okay." Velvet says, almost too softly to hear. "It's okay."

"No it's not!" Blake says.

Velvet puts her other arm around Blake's middle and snuggles in close. One of her Faunus ears tickles Blake's cheek. "Then we'll make it okay." she whispers.

"How?!" Blake wails.

"We'll figure something out." Velvet says. "For what it's worth, I don't think Yang hates you."

"You don't?" Blake finally looks up, into Velvet's eyes. They're almost nose-to-nose.

"Nope." Velvet says. "She seemed really upset after...well, after upsetting you."

Blake smiles bitterly. "You'd know better than me." She wipes her eyes on the back of a hand.

"Why d'you say that?"

"I left her, remember? Just like her-" She stops. "Just like before."

"Oh." Velvet says. "Sorry, I forgot. Still kinda dopey."

"Not everyone's as wrapped up in my brain as I am." Blake says. She realizes she should probably smile to soften her words, so she does, if only for a moment.

Velvet smiles back, then leans her head on Blake's shoulder. Blake in turn leans her head on Velvet's. "You two really need to talk." Velvet says gently.

"But Yang doesn't want to. I don't think I do either."

"It's only gonna get harder."

Blake sighs. She wipes her eyes again, and says, "Maybe."

Velvet hums 'mm hm'. She gives Blake a squeeze. "Yang's gone to visit her mom. She looked about ready to burst. I don't know if we should give her some time to herself, or what..."

"I don't- I don't think I should see her right now."

Velvet's ears droop a little. "Okay." she says unconvincingly. "Just... Please don't run again." She waits for Blake to say something, but Blake can't bring herself to. "Please?" Velvet says again.

Finally Blake nods.

* * *

Unlike last time, Yang has nothing to say. She just sinks down on her knees in front of Summer's grave and weeps. Something digs into her side. She ignores it. She gouges holes in the dirt with her hand in a fleeting attempt to anchor herself in the middle of her sorrow. Patches of dirt turn to mud under the onslaught of tears. Mud like last night, when-

She beats her fist against her leg. _Why can't you get out of my head?_ she demands silently. _Even when you weren't really here... You were all I could think about most days._

To her relief, Blake doesn't answer, even inside her head. Eventually Yang sits up, wincing as whatever it is continues to poke her. She takes it out of her pocket. "This isn't- This isn't mine." she sniffs, wiping her eyes on her right sleeve. "Wh-" Her breath catches in her throat again. "The cottage."

She rubs her grime-covered hand on her pants and tries to turn the Scroll on. To her surprise, it works. "It's almost fully-charged. And it's last year's model." She shakes her head. "This doesn't make any sense."

She can only find one file on it. A video. It bears her name. She hastily opens it.

The figure is something out of her nightmares, clothed in red and black. _It's not Adam,_ she tells her heart in a vain attempt to stop it from racing. Despite her immediate reaction, the mask the figure wears is larger, and what little skin is visible is pale, almost paler than Weiss.

It's not Adam, but Yang knows the figure nevertheless. She saw it once in a photo, and again just before passing out.

It's her mother.

"You're crying as you open this." the woman says. Yang reaches for her eyes. They're still wet. "Some sort of argument? Honestly, I didn't pay much attention to that part of the vision. I was more focused on what you did in the alley."

The woman takes off her mask. Her eyes are the same color as Yang's when Yang gets angry. Yang immediately hates them. Both pairs of them. "Whatever training Tai and Ozpin gave you won't have prepared you for the sins of our family. My brother turns into a bird, I can open portals, and you... You just have fire." The woman sighs. "I don't know what I was expecting. Or even _if_ I was expecting anything." The woman chuckles darkly. "My pregnancy was much the same way. I thought I was getting old until my stomach started-" She shakes her head. "So you weren't a total disappointment. But I don't regret my decision to leave." She puts her mask back on. "That's all. Turn off the camera."

There's a rustling sound, like fabric. Something passes in front of the woman and the video ends.


	40. Chapter 40

She knows something is wrong. She can see a terrible light through the trees. She can almost taste the smoke on the air. Her eyes are already starting to water.

But her legs. Her legs won't take her any farther.

"It's only fire." Velvet tells herself. "Yang needs you. Probably." She grimaces, and puts one foot in front of the other. "Yang?" she shouts. "Are you there?"

No response. She grits her teeth. "Keep moving forward." she says under her breath, and so she does. "Keep moving forward."

"Yang!" she shouts again.

The trees end just ahead.

She starts to cough.

"Yang-" she wheezes before coughing some more.

She comes out into the open.

The grasses in front of the gravestone are ablaze.

Velvet's eyes are overwhelmed by the brightness of the fire and the stinging of the smoke.

She can't see Yang.

She can't call out for her either.

Velvet fumbles for her Scroll, turning her back on the flames to try and make out which button to push to speed-dial Coco.

She pushes one at random. And waits.

And waits.

An airship passes overhead.

Finally she hears something. She thinks it's Yatsuhashi's grunt.

"Yatsu?" she coughs. "Tell- Tell Coco- Something's wrong. There's fire at the gravesite. I can't find Yang."

"We're on our way." he says. There's a pause while he says something inaudible even to Velvet. "How are you?"

"I'm-" She coughs again. "I'm _fine_. I need to find Yang."

"How big is the fire?"

She looks back at it. "It's big." she manages to say.

"Wait until we get there. You don't sound well."

Velvet knows he's right. She is about to turn to the fire again when the sound of the crackling flames seems to shift.

She turns her head.

Yang is standing behind her, her back to the fire as well. The light is doing strange things to her hair. It almost looks as though it's burning as well.

Yang doesn't say anything.

"Yang!" Velvet turns around completely. "Where have you been? What happened here?"

Yang doesn't answer.

Velvet frowns. She reaches out a trembling hand. As it comes to rest on Yang's right shoulder, Yang inhales sharply. The stub of her arm seems to hiss. It sparks again.

"Vel-" Yang begins to say. She frowns, and tries again. Her voice is rough. "Velvet? What are you doing here?"

"I came looking for you." Velvet says. "I was worried."

"You came... All the way, from Beacon?" Yang says, still frowning. Her eyes are narrowed too, though whether it's with suspicion or concentration, Velvet can't say. "What about your team?"

Velvet gulps. "We've- We've been here with you for over a month. Don't you remember?"

"I-" Yang puts her hand to her head. "I don't- My head hurts."

Velvet reaches out a hand of her own again, slowly. "Let's get you back to the group, okay?"

Yang turns. "What happened here?" she asks.

"It doesn't matter. Soon as we get closer to Signal I'm putting in a call for some firefighters. They can handle it."

Yang doesn't respond. She keeps looking at the fire.

Velvet walks up beside her, looking anxiously at her but saying nothing either.

At last Yang says, "There- There was something-" She looks down at her hand and flexes it several times.

Velvet doesn't know what to say.

"You go on without me." Yang says, as if sensing her discomfort. "I'll be fine."

Velvet coughs again as she makes her way back to the forest. She looks back at Yang. Yang returns her look before staring into the fire.

Suddenly Velvet turns. She hears Yatsuhashi and Coco before she sees them. "What happened to Fox?" she asks hoarsely as they come to a halt next to her.

"He's staying with Blake." Coco says. Velvet can feel Coco's distaste radiating off of her. "What about Yang?"

Velvet points a thumb back over her shoulder. "She's over there, but...she's really out of it."

"Yatsuhashi will take you both back to camp. I'll stay here and wait for the fire brigade, see if I can't stop it from spreading any further."

Yatsuhashi nods. He goes over to stand by Yang a few feet away from the cliffside. He waits for her to notice him, and when she doesn't, he grunts quietly.

Yang jumps a little. "Yat- Yatsu...hashi?" she says slowly. "Where did you come from?"

"The camp." he says. "Coco said I was to take you and Velvet back there."

"Coco? She's here too?"

Yatsuhashi's face doesn't change. "I'm going to pick you up now. Is that okay?"

"I can walk." Yang says, a little defensively. "I'm not a cripple. Down there at least."

"You're tired. I'm not." He holds out his hands. "Is that okay?"

"I guess..."

He picks her up and sets her on his shoulders, then he walks back to where Velvet is waiting for them.

"Be careful Yatsu." Velvet says, her ears low with anxiety. "The branches-"

"I'll keep to the path." he assures her. He half-turns to Coco. She's standing downwind of the fire. Whether by chance or design, she's still wearing her glasses.

"Go! Go!" she says, waving a hand in the direction of the camp.

He nods and starts off. Velvet hurries to follow after she blows Coco a quick kiss.

* * *

Yatsuhashi deftly avoids any low-hanging branches that Yang might bump her head on. Low is a relative statement, given that together they're almost 13 feet tall.

Velvet keeps looking up at Yang. Yatsuhashi notices. He offers a hand, and Velvet, reading his intention, can't help but laugh. "Holding me in your arms's not gonna help. If anything I'd have to crane my neck even further!"

He smiles.

She smiles back. Then she stretches and sighs. "It's a lot easier to breathe away from the fire, isn't it Yang?" she says.

Yang looks off into the forest. "I'm sorry." she says quietly.

Velvet hears her anyway. "It's okay!" she says. "It wasn't your fault!"

"But it was." Yang says. Yatsuhashi looks up at her through his eyebrows. "I got so _angry_ after... After-"

"After what?" he prompts her.

She shakes her head. "It's complicated."

Velvet bites her lip. "You don't have to tell us if you don't wanna," she says. "But you've been keeping a lot of things back recently. Maybe even from yourself."

Yang fights the sudden urge to lean back and dangle upside down off Yatsuhashi. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"What you said at camp, to Blake."

Yang's insides seem to tie themselves into a knot. "Did she-"

"Last I saw she was still here. She was pretty torn up though. You and her really need to talk." Velvet says.

Yang doesn't know what to say.

"How long ago did you see her?" she asks finally.

"I don't know." Velvet admits. "I haven't been keeping track of time."

Yatsuhashi speaks up. "Fox stayed with her. Coco's orders. He'll call us if something goes wrong."

 _A little late for that,_ Yang can't help thinking to herself. She jerks her head to the left to avoid a branch and almost loses her balance. She tries to grab hold of Yatsuhashi with her right hand for a moment, forgetting she doesn't have it any more.

* * *

Some time later, Yang notices they've arrived at the clearing. She hops down off Yatsuhashi's shoulders before he can offer to help. Her legs shake upon landing. Velvet hurries to her side, but Yang holds up her hand. "I'm fine." she says. Velvet looks skeptical but stands back as Yang walks towards the rock.

Blake and Fox are leaning against the far side of it. They seem to be exchanging words, though Yang can't make out what's being said. She does notice Blake's posture change as her ears seem to flicker. She doesn't turn around, but she seems to stop talking.

Yang sits down on top of the rock. It's not perfectly flat on top, so she has to shift around a bit before finding the perfect spot.

No one says anything. At least until Yang works up the courage to say, "Thanks for staying with her Fox."

He smiles. "You're welcome. We had a good talk." He doesn't offer to elaborate, and Yang doesn't ask. He gets up and walks over to join Yatsuhashi and Velvet, leaving Yang alone with Blake.

Yang looks at Blake. Blake doesn't look back at Yang. She's pulling her knees close to her chest and staring away into the forest.

"I thought..." Yang begins softly. "I thought you might have run away again."

"Do you think that little of me?" Blake says.

"I don't know what to think. Not any more." Yang looks off in the other direction. "Between everything that happened last fall and... And everything that's happened since then, I-" Her voice fades into silence.

Eventually Blake says, "You said- You said you hadn't forgiven me?"

"I said I wasn't sure. I'm still not sure." Yang's heart is thumping painfully against her ribs. But she's not angry. She's afraid. "Don't take this the wrong way... But I think we need to break up."

Blake looks up. " _What_?"

"If we keep bottling things up, we're just going to end up hurting each other even more than we already have. And I don't want that to happen." Yang reaches out a hand. Blake looks at it, confused. "I still want us to be friends. I mean, if you do. I care about you a lot. More than I can say. But we need to focus on ourselves before we can focus on each other."

Blake gets to her feet and opens her mouth. She wants to argue, but she can't find the words to express herself. "I don't want to break up. I _love you_. I came _back_ for you. Doesn't that mean ANYTHING?"

"Of course it does!" Yang says. "But you wouldn't have had to come back if you hadn't left in the first place!"

"I left to protect you!"

"And look how well that turned out! Adam knows we were dating!"

"'Were'? So we've already broken up?!"

"No! I ju-" Yang stops. The stub of her arm fizzes a little. "...it's the right thing to do." she finishes hollowly.

"Right for who? Cause it sounds to me like you just don't want to get hurt again!"

"Blake." Yang says. Her simple quiet tones make Blake inhale sharply, and take a step back. "Look at us. Look at what's happening. Just because I said I think we need some time for ourselves. You've been so focused on me since you've been back, but there have been...these...little things, here and there. Earlier today, just after Neo left you said you 'saw' Adam when he wasn't there. And your scar. It's still there, it's always going to be, but I'm willing to bet it still hurts." Blake looks down at her side. She can't see the scar through her coat, but she can feel it. "My arm still hurts too. I don't know if it's ever going to stop. Before you ask, I don't regret it; not for less than a second. But the world keeps going, so we should too. We can't do it like this though. If we do, we'll just make more mistakes, and feel worse about ourselves, and it'll keep on spiraling out of control."

Blake paces back and forth, running her hands through her hair. Gradually her pace seems to slow. She looks up at Yang. Tears glisten in her golden eyes. "I don't know what to do any more." she whispers. "I love you. _So much._ "

"I love you too." Yang says. She can feel tears of her own brewing. "And- We don't have to do it right away. We can, like, kind of ease out of it. Or maybe we should do it all at once, like taking off a bandage. I-" She rubs her eyes on the back of her hand. "I don't _know_."

"I have a suggestion." Velvet says timidly. She cringes reflexively when Blake and Yang look at her. Fox puts a hand on her shoulder. She closes her eyes, and says upon opening them, "Don't think about it too much tonight. We're exhausted, and...and you must be too. Just try and get some rest all right?"

Yang sighs. Her eyes drift down to the grass before she closes them as well. "You're right." she says. "I'm gonna- I'm gonna head back to the house and take one of my sleeping pills."

"Can I have one?" Blake asks. She doesn't want to imagine what her dreams might be like tonight.

"Sure." Yang says. She offers a smile, a pale approximation of what one of her old smiles would be, but at least she tries. "Anyone else?"

Fox and Yatsuhashi shake their heads.

Velvet raises a hand with a nervous smile.

"That makes three." Yang says. "Sure I can't change your mind? Good things come in fours."

They smile, perhaps uncomfortably, but shake their heads again.

"Ok- Okay..." Yang starts off toward the house.

"Yang?" Yang turns. Velvet points her thumb to her right instead of Yang's. "It's that way." Yang is too tired even to sigh. Without a word, she changes direction. "We love you." Velvet says quietly as Yang walks by.

Yang smiles, but as soon as she's out of sight she breaks down in tears, remembering the look on Ruby's face when she had said something very similar all those months before.


	41. Chapter 41

Yang reaches for the doorknob. When she tries to turn it, it doesn't budge. She tries again, then two more times for good measure. Then she steps away and looks up at the house. "Do I wanna wake dad up?" she wonders out loud. "He might wanna talk about...stuff." She sighs. "I don't even know if he's home." She puts her hand to her face. She almost starts to cry again, but when she feels the tears begin to leak out of the corners of her eyes, she pulls her hand away and tries to get angry. "Adam." she says under her breath. "Raven."

Another name almost falls from her lips before she can help it.

 _Blake._

She gasps.

Before she has time to process it, she finds herself running to stand under her father's bedroom window. "Dad?" she calls. Her voice cracks. She sounds like a little kid.

 _"Daddy?" she called, a long time ago. He'd been making such strange noises when he thought that no one could hear him._

 _The door didn't open._

 _The little girl's shoulders slumped. But she remained there, calling out for him from time to time until her voice was too weak to carry through the wood._

 _Finally the door opened. She looked up, trying her best to smile._

 _It wasn't her dad. It was Uncle Qrow. It had been so hard learning to spell the word the way everyone else said it was spelled. She'd asked him once why he had a q instead of a c._

 _He'd smiled, and said, "It makes me different."_

 _He crouched down in front of her now. His voice was hoarse and gruff even when he was trying to be nice. She'd only realized later that he must have been crying too._

 _"Your dad can't come see you right now, kid. He's... He's tired."_

 _"I'm tired too." she said. She must've been pouting. She was too young to know how stupid pouting was._

 _"I know." he said. He held out his hand. "That's why...I think...you both should get some rest. Maybe tomorrow, eh?"_

 _It wasn't tomorrow._

* * *

"We're _not_ going to let you do that."

The stranger looks genuinely puzzled. "I'm sorry, did I leave out the part where I said that what you want matters?" He rounds on them again. "Why yes, yes I must have, because it DOESN'T! You're only even close to important because of what you've got inside that wonderful fleshy heart of yours!" He lunges forward, batting aside Jaune's shield and resting the tip of one of his weapons against Jaune's chest. "Or should I say _who_?"

And the fight continues.

* * *

She isn't brave, like Ruby had been so fond of saying.

She isn't brave, or else she would have run away already.

 _Run like Blake... No. Don't think about that._

She isn't brave. She sits in front of the mirror, pulling her hair out of its delicately arranged ponytail, trying not to look at the welt her father had raised, trying not to wonder why her Aura hasn't cleared it up yet. Maybe it's broken. Maybe all those hours in the study practicing her songs had weakened her very essence.

She isn't brave, and so she cries.

* * *

"Yang?"

She blinks, and shakes her head. The window is open. Her father's looking down at her.

"Are you okay?"

 _When's the last time he asked me that?_ Yang finds herself thinking. She can't remember.

And suddenly she's crying.

"No," she says. "I'm not- I'm not okay."

For a long long moment she doesn't know if her father heard her. She can't look up to see either; her eyes have too many tears in them.

"I'll be right there." he finally says. She waits to hear the sound of the window closing, but it doesn't happen.

" _Hup_ ," he says quietly. Then she hears something land close by, or someone, and his arms are around her.

She clutches at his back with her arm and continues to cry.

For his part, he holds her somewhat awkwardly close to his chest. "Feels as though it's been a while since we did this." he says with a nervous laugh. He can feel Yang nodding against his chest. He clears his throat. "So, uh, th- the fire department called. They said there was a fire, by Summer's grave."

Yang pulls away. "I'm sorry." she says. She's still crying.

"Hey, it's okay." he says. "I may not be the best dad in the world, but even I know you would never do something like that if you could help it. Not to Summer."

She wipes her eyes on her sleeve. "Huh?"

He looks off to one side, thankfully not her right. "I've- I haven't been there for you, when you needed it. After she died... Well, you know better than just about anyone how messed up I was."

Yang doesn't want to think about that. She stands awkwardly in place, waiting for him to continue.

"Anyway. All of that kind of resurfaced sometime last month. When your friends came back and told me what you'd done, I- I couldn't even go out looking for you. I found some of the special stuff I'd been meaning to give to Port and Oobleck, and...it was like I'd never stopped."

Yang gulps. "Can we not..."

"What?" He looks up, confused.

"I d- I don't wanna hear about...you..." She can't bring herself to say the word.

"Okay." He scratches the back of his neck. "So, that talk you had with Mistress Cerise earlier. It got me thinking. I mean, it took me a while, but I got there in the end. I was thinking, if you do decide to see one of those psych people, maybe I could sit in with you. If you want me to."

Yang had not expected this. She's given up expecting things. It's easier that way.

"Uh..." she says. "I don't... I don't know what to say. Today's really sucked, and that's good. I mean, what you said is good. At least I think it's good. I- I just want to sleep. I promised Velvet and- And Blake I'd bring them some of my sleeping pills." She does not allow herself to think about the conversation she'd had with Blake. For once, her brain complies.

"Oh. Oh yeah, that- That makes sense." Taiyang tries to smile. "If it makes you feel better, I don't know what time it is either. I've been trying to wait up for you."

The words are out of Yang's mouth before she can stop them. "To give me another lecture?"

"What? No! Because I care about you."

"You've got a funny way of showing it." Yang says.

The silence that follows makes them both incredibly anxious.

At last, Yang finds the courage to say, "I'm sorry. I've had a really bad day, and I just wanna sleep."

"Okay." Taiyang says with a sigh. Yang winces, but she doesn't know what else to say. She's about to head inside when Taiyang says, "Oh, uh..."

She can't bring herself to turn around. "Yes?"

He frowns. "...nothing." he says after a moment.

Now she can. She does. Angrily. "You're still keeping secrets from me?" she demands. "Didn't you say Mom always hated that?"

"No, it's-" He stops, carefully, palpably. "It's late. I'm tired. _You're_ tired. You just told me. It's nothing urgent, I promise."

Her eyes must be turning red now. She clenches her hands into fists. "You _promise_?! You-" And just like that, her anger's gone. She opens her hands, but something's off. She looks down at them, and remembers that she only has one. "I'm sorry dad. I- I don't know what's going on. I should be happy. Right? I- Blake's back. I've got a new arm. She and I took down a Grimm today. And by she I don't mean my arm, I mean... Blake. Blake and I, or...or Blake and me. It was really- It was cool. We got lost in the woods..." Her voice trails away. She doesn't want to tell him about the cottage, or the Scroll, or the message from her mom- _No,_ she says to herself. _She is not my mom. Summer is. Summer...was._

Taiyang's rubbing his forehead with one thumb and forefinger. With the other, he's scratching the back of his neck. He catches Yang looking, and stops, offering an uneasy smile. "I can talk to Cerise sometime tomorrow. You know, ask her about one of those psych people. Psychologists," he corrects himself, looking relieved. "Just remembered which one she said."

Yang's gaze drifts off to the side. "Can I do it?" she asks shyly.

"Yeah." Taiyang says. "You're...an adult, you're- You're capable..." He doesn't sound sure. Yang doesn't blame him.

"Okay." Yang says. "Um, the front door's locked."

"Right! Didn't want to risk You Know Who coming back." He pats himself down. "Ah nuts, I left the keys inside. Gimme one sec."

"Dad?" He looks down at her, already preparing for his jump up. "Could...could you give me a boost?"

He blinks. "Oh. Yeah, sure. Uh, it might be- It might be hard, with-" Thankfully he stops there. "You know what, never mind." He holds out his hands. "You ready?"

She nods. She takes a step back and jumps into the air, using none of her Aura or whatever else she has inside of her. He catches her and holds her steady while she scrabbles for a hold on the windowsill. Finally she gets one, and hoists herself up and through, poking her head over once she's on the other side. "Gimme one sec." she says, with a very faint smile. He smiles back.

She makes her way downstairs to open the front door for him. He smiles again when she opens it. She's still wearing the same smile from before.

"Back again," she tells him. She hurries upstairs and to the bedroom she shared with Ruby. She's taken aback momentarily by the door that's still on the floor, but then she remembers.

She heads over to her nightstand, more slowly than before. "It was three, right?" she asks herself. "Yeah. Blake, me, and Velvet." She takes one more to make four, just to be certain.

Her eyes fall on her prosthetic arm lying in the shadows. She has to set the pills down to put it on. She doesn't even notice Weiss Junior failing to make herself known.

Taiyang is waiting by the open door downstairs. "Be careful out in those woods tonight." he tells her as she comes closer.

"What? Oh." She nods. "We'll have someone on guard. Probably one of the boys. Maybe Fox." She stands up on the balls of her feet to kiss his cheek. "G'night dad."

He smiles. "G'night." he says. He follows her out onto the porch and watches her disappear into the trees. "You sunny little dragon."

Then he heads inside and locks the door behind him.

* * *

Velvet looks up. "Everything ok-" She stops. "I mean, I know it's not, but you were gone a while."

Yang knows she shouldn't be angry. Velvet doesn't know what happened at the house. She doesn't know how tired Yang is: something beyond bone-tired, a weariness of the soul that leads her mind to dark places she tries not to dwell on.

She smiles and hopes her eyes aren't red. They make it hard to keep her feelings inside sometimes. "Yeah. Just a bunch of stuff." She passes Velvet one of the pills. Velvet takes it, and presses a kiss to Yang's cheek. Yang blushes. "What was that for?"

"You remembered." Velvet says, smiling at Yang before downing the pill in a single swallow. She grimaces faintly and reaches for her canteen to take a long swig.

"Of course I did." Yang says. "You're my friends."

"What Velvet means is, you've been through a lot," Fox says. "Even just today. None of us would have blamed you if you'd simply gone to sleep when you were back at home."

"I would." Yang says. She's too tired to keep it to herself.

She hates the silence that follows. She _should've_ kept it to herself.

Velvet opens her arms to offer a hug. Yang doesn't know what else to do, so she moves in close and hugs Velvet back, once again being careful not to use her Aura or anything else. "We're here for you." Velvet whispers.

 _But we can't always be,_ Coco whispers. Yang looks around as much as she can, but Coco is nowhere in sight.

Yang gulps and lets go. "Sleep well guys." she murmurs.

Fox and Yatsuhashi are getting into their sleeping bags. "You as well." Yatsuhashi says.

"What he said." Fox says.

Yang remembers what Taiyang had said, just a little too late, as usual. "Oh, uh, dad wanted someone to keep an eye out. For Grimm, or...you know, _her_. I- I thought you'd be good for it Fox, with your, uh, Aura-sensing."

Fox groans. "I don't suppose I could convince you to take turns." he says to Yatsuhashi.

Yatsuhashi grunts in response.

"Thank you." Fox says. He throws back the top of his sleeping bag. "I'll take the first watch and wait up for Coco."

Yang takes her pill, fighting back both a grimace and the desire to ask for water. "She's not back yet?" she asks.

Fox shakes his head. "She sent a message. She's working with the firefighters."

"Oh" is all Yang can say. _It's still going? What did I_ do _?_

Fox stands up. He's holding out his sleeping bag. "You can sleep in this, if you like. Velvet-"

"Already there Fox." she says. She's snuggled down in Coco's sleeping bag, her Faunus ears poking out of the top.

"I shouldn't be surprised." Fox says, a smile ghosting across his face.

Yang takes the sleeping bag from him and looks around. "Where's Blake?"

"She's on the other side of the rock." Velvet says. She peeks up at Yang. "I think she didn't want to bother you."

"She's not a bother." Yang says. "I'll go talk to her."

"Sleep well." Velvet yawns.

* * *

Blake is curled up on her side, eyes closed, her face expressionless. She doesn't seem to acknowledge Yang as she approaches. Yang lays down beside her and watches the slight movement of Blake's chest as she sleeps. Her coat is draped over her like a blanket, and every so often the scar on her stomach is briefly visible when she shifts position.

Suddenly her breathing intensifies. Her nostrils flare. Even in the silence of the night, Yang can't be sure she isn't imagining Blake whispering, "No. No, I'm sorry. No, _please_ , no, no, take me, take me instead."

Yang reaches out, then stops. She doesn't want to wake her. She doesn't know if she should. _What if she's dreaming about Adam? What if I could snap her out of whatever he's doing to her? What if I'm too much of a coward this time? What if- What if-_

The questions run circles inside her head. Paralyzed by terrors of her own, Yang can only watch as Blake tosses and turns.

* * *

She awakens suddenly. She doesn't remember falling asleep. Someone is breathing fast. Yang doesn't know who. She opens her eyes.

Blake is staring at her, her own eyes wide. Upon seeing Yang looking right back at her, Blake rolls over. Yang's heart sinks.

"Blake?" she whispers.

There's no response.

"Blake, I'm- I'm here." She reaches out her hand, her right hand, and barely rests it on Blake's shoulder.

Blake shivers, but says nothing.

"Can I hug you?" Yang asks.

Blake doesn't trust herself to speak. She nods once.

Yang pulls herself out of the sleeping bag and snuggles closer to Blake, putting her arms around Blake's waist.

Her right hand somehow comes to rest against Blake's stomach wound.

 _"I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love."_ they hear him say. _"Starting with her."_


	42. Chapter 42

The next time she wakes up, Yang's arms are still around her.

She wants to get up. She _should_ get up. Yang said they were breaking up. But she can't move, not the way she is.

Blake turns her head, as much as she can. Out of the corner of her eye, she can see Yang, fast asleep behind her. _I'm not leaving you again,_ Blake says to herself, and to Yang. _Not without you knowing. Knowing...why._

Yang stirs. Blake rolls over to face her. They're only inches apart.

Blake watches her, even as she listens to the sounds around them. The clearing is large enough that even with her Faunus hearing and the still hush of the morning air, she can barely make out someone whispering. Someone whispers back.

She can't tell who's talking. She sits up. Yang's arms fall to the ground, and Yang wakes up. "Blake?" she murmurs sleepily.

Blake motions for her to be quiet. She snatches Gambol Shroud from where she'd put it the night before, and crouches behind the rock.

Yang sits up too. She raises an eyebrow.

Blake beckons to her. When Yang scurries over, she puts her lips to the other woman's ear and hisses, "Voices. Don't know who."

"Are they-" Yang hisses back. Then she stops. She looks down to the side.

"I don't know if they're real." Blake admits. "But I'm gonna find out." She pulls out the pistol part of Gambol Shroud, readies herself for combat, and looks around the boulder.

It's just Fox and Velvet. Velvet has her back to them, so she doesn't notice. And Fox...is Fox. Blake doesn't know if he 'senses' her sudden fear or even if he knows they're awake.

She remembers Yang by her side and turns back to her. "Fox and Velvet." she says. "They're alone."

Yang sighs. "Whoo. Okay. That's a relief." She frowns suddenly. "What's wrong?"

Blake shakes her head. "Don't know." she says. Her heart is still racing. It hurts. She hears a clattering. She looks down. Her hands are shaking. The pistol is clattering against the sheath. She puts them aside. She closes her eyes. She tries to take deep breaths. It doesn't help.

"Hey," Yang says. Blake tries to tune her out. She tries tuning everything out. It doesn't help. "Hey." Yang says again. Blake opens her eyes. Yang is holding out her hand. Her left hand. She's hiding her new right behind her back. "We're safe. There's no danger here."

Blake nods. "Okay." she says. She closes her eyes. It doesn't help. "...it doesn't help." she admits.

"Oh." Yang says. "W-what should I do?"

Blake shakes her head. "I don't know." she says. Now it hurts to talk.

"Remember to breathe." Yang says.

Blake does. "I don't- I don't want to." she says. She's not even aware of thinking it. _Where did that come from?_ "It _hurts_."

"Blake? What's wrong?" New voice. Not _new_ -new. She's heard it before.

She has to concentrate. _Velvet_.

"It's a panic attack." Yang says. "I had to deal with them a lot." There's no recrimination in her voice, but there should be. "Breathe, Blake. _Breathe_. You're safe. Nothing's gonna hurt you."

"Fox." Velvet says. Blake doesn't know why.

"I'll be fine." another voice says.

"One more time." Yang says. "Breaaaathe."

Blake does. It doesn't help. But she does.

"I'm gonna touch your shoulder now."

Blake can feel her touch, slow and soft and gentle. _Why does she love me?_ she wonders. _Why? Why_ me _?_

"You know what?" Yang says. "Do you think you can sit up a bit?" Blake tries. "Easy, easy..." Yang murmurs. It suddenly breaks Blake's heart to hear Yang sound like that. "There we go." She feels another hand on her other shoulder. _Who's is that?_ "Hmm. I think...if I sit like this..." Fabric rustles. "Hmm." Yang says again. "I'm too high up. Hey Blake? If you scoot forward a little, I can try and help you relax."

"What...?" Blake says. Her voice is thin and reedy.

"You don't have to, but-" Yang stops. Then she continues. "When I was younger, a friend of mine used to say I had great hands. She said I gave like the best massage, even without any training. It- It's been a while, but-"

Blake drags herself forward. "Okay." she whispers.

Yang moves in behind her. Blake feels the hands on her shoulders again. They start to rub and she almost collapses. "I still got it." Yang says, sounding proud of herself.

"Gimme a break." a new-new voice says. "Do I have to be jealous you're doing that to someone else?"

Yang's hand and the other stop. Blake has recovered enough of her sense of self to reach back and put one of her hands on Yang's. Yang strokes the back of it with her thumb before she responds to the newcomer. "Ah, get in line." she says.

"Is that what they're here for?" the other voice asks. It drawls what it says, without seeming to slow down.

"Can we do this whole thing later? I was just getting my groove back."

"Sure, sure. Just wanted to say hi. So, hi, I guess." The voice stops abruptly. Shoes crunch the grass underfoot as their owner walks away. Then, from a distance away, the voice says, "It's good to see you again Yang."

"You too." Yang says. She makes an effort to sound airy but when some time passes and the voice doesn't sound again, she sighs.

"Who was that?" Blake asks weakly.

Yang is silent for a moment. Her hand and the other continue to work. Blake realizes that they must both be hers. That's the only explanation for the synchronicity. Her mind reproaches her for not thinking of this sooner, for thinking only of Yang's prosthetic as 'the other', even as Yang herself says, "Remember what I said about a friend of mine saying I had great hands? That was her." She keeps kneading at Blake's shoulders and neck, and Blake finds herself nodding along with the rhythm of Yang's hands. "She- I haven't seen her in a while. She didn't even stop in after..." Her voice almost catches. But her hands keep working. "Is she gonna stick around this time? What am I supposed to say? Or...or do?"

Blake doesn't know. She just sits there and lets Yang do all the work.

Eventually they hear Coco in the distance. "Breakfast anyone?"

"You hungry?" Yang asks.

Blake shrugs a little. "I guess."

Yang lets go of Blake's shoulders. "Okey dokey."

Blake thinks Yang has stood up. She endeavors to follow, only for her legs to tremble and threaten to give way beneath her.

"Whoa." Yang reaches out to catch her. Her arm goes around Blake's waist.

Blake looks up.

Yang looks down, worry shining out of her purple eyes.

"You shouldn't keep doing this." Blake says.

"Why not?" Yang says.

"Because-" Blake tries to remember what Yang had said last night. The only thing she can come up with is, "Because we're not dating any more."

"That doesn't mean I don't still care about you."

She finally remembers, just a little too late. "I thought the whole point of breaking us up was so that we could focus on ourselves, instead of on each other!"

Yang frowns. "...let's have something to eat. Big decisions should not be made on empty stomachs."

Blake shrugs Yang away. "I can walk by myself." she says. And she does, all the way to the picnic blanket Coco and Yatsuhashi have set out.

* * *

She can't remember the last time she had anything to eat. As she struggles to stay calm and lather jam onto her first piece of toast, she notices her hands continue to shake.

Velvet and Yang notice as well, but only Velvet offers to help. "I can do it." she says.

"Blake's a big girl Velvet." Coco says coolly. "She can manage by herself."

"Yeah." Blake says. "But...thanks." She puts down the knife, trying not to think about the related conversation she had had with Fox the night before. She takes a bite of toast, and before she's finished chewing, she takes another. Throughout the meal, she can sense Coco's anger simmering beneath the surface, as Coco pointedly refuses to look in Blake's direction.

"So..." Yang is saying. "Blake and I went into Vale yesterday. Picked out a new outfit for me at Warden Yarn. Thing is, they were basically already closed. I think the owner said he'd hold it for me, but I told dad I'd go talk to Mistress Cerise about seeing a psych- Psychologist today. I don't know which I should do first."

"Hmm." Coco says. She puts a finger to her lips thoughtfully. "I'd say talk to Cerise. With any luck that psychologist will be in Vale too, so you could buy that outfit on your way there."

"We could get it for her." Fox suggests.

"She said the owner was holding it for _her_ though." Coco says.

"Tell him you're her friends." Velvet says. "If he wants proof, your Scrolls might be able to connect to one another. Tower here still works."

"That works." Yang says. She looks off to the side again. "I'm...sorry if you guys had other plans."

Coco waves a hand. "Don't mention it. Only plans we had were trying to relax." She smiles. "It's not like we can't do that after we get back though, right?"

Blake says nothing. She tries to tell herself it's just because she's hungry and she doesn't want to talk with food in her mouth.

* * *

After breakfast is over, she and Yang help CFVY clean up and take things back to the house. Blake makes sure to walk a step or two behind the group but Yang falls in line with her anyway.

"Are we..." she begins.

Blake looks straight ahead. "Are we what?"

"You know...broken up..."

"Do you think we should?"

"I don't know." Yang looks down at the ground. "I love you."

"It was your idea to begin with." Blake hopes she doesn't sound too accusatory, like Adam would be.

* * *

Yang says nothing throughout the rest of the walk back to the house.

She says nothing as she heads upstairs to brush her teeth, leaving her prosthetic arm on her bedside table. Seeing it in the mirror feels _wrong_.

She says nothing when she comes downstairs to help Velvet clean the dishes.

She says nothing while they both work.

Not for wont of words to say.

She just can't bring herself to really think about things.

When the dishes are done and put away, she leaves the kitchen. She finds Blake upstairs in the guest room, putting new sheets on the bed.

"Blake..." she whispers.

Blake doesn't trust herself to look at Yang until she's had a chance to try and calm the raging tempest inside herself.

Finally she turns.

Yang is rubbing the stub of her right arm with her hand. She's staring at the wall.

"Yes?" Blake says.

Yang blinks. She looks at Blake.

"Did you have something to say?"

Yang takes a deep breath, and lets it go.

"No. Not...really." She can't meet Blake's eyes. "It's more like something I wanted to _do_."

"Oh."

Yang is turning to face her. Her left arm falls to her side, hand clenched into a fist.

Blake's heart leaps. She closes her eyes, despite her promise to herself that she wouldn't. "Go ahead." she says.

The floorboards creak as Yang takes a step forward. Her breath is hot on Blake's face.

Blake trembles.

"I c-" Yang begins. "I can't lose you again."

"You're not. We're just breaking up."

"And if we do?" Blake opens her eyes and Yang looks up, all in the same moment. "What are _you_ gonna do?"

Blake frowns. "I...I don't know." She crosses over to the window. "It doesn't seem like Coco's going to make it easy for me to stay."

"I thought you said I wasn't going to lose you again." Yang says.

Blake flinches. She turns away quickly. "No, you're not, I-" She can feel her heart beating faster inside her chest. "...I'm afraid."

"Of me?"

This time it's Blake's eyes that almost turn red. "No." she says. "Never of you."

"So..." A cloud passes over the sun. " _Him_?"

"He has a name." Blake snaps. Yang takes half a step back, and Blake makes an effort to reel herself in. "I'm sorry." she whispers. Tears prick at her eyes again. She wipes them away. "I'm not angry at you. I'm-" She wipes her eyes again. "I'm angry that you had to ask that."

"Oh." Yang tries to relax. "You're probably mad at him too though, right?"

Blake nods. "I trusted him. I...I think I loved him, once, a long time ago."

Yang feels as if she's supposed to say something. "...what happened?" she asks, wishing she was smart enough to ask a better question.

Blake finds herself answering. "He changed." She leans against the window, and Yang's sense of deja-vu overwhelms her to the point where she only barely catches Blake's next words. "People change. Sometimes you're too close to see it happen. Sometimes you don't want to see it." She looks down for a moment, then back up at Yang. "Again, I'm not talking about you. I guess I'm just trying to justify to myself why it took me so long to leave him."

"It's okay. Take your time." Yang scuffs her foot against the floor, staring down at the rug. "I should get going though. Maybe I'll see you this afternoon."

"Okay." Blake says. She looks out the window again.

Yang thinks she's out of words to say. She thinks that until she's halfway down the stairs and something hits her.

"You could come with me." she says after hurrying back to the guest room.

Blake jumps a little. "What?"

"You need help too. Maybe more than I do." Yang tries to smile. "It'd be better than staying here with Coco at least, right?" She silently apologizes to Coco.

"I guess." Blake pulls herself away from the window. Her lips curve upwards a quarter of an inch as she approaches Yang.

"Cool. Let me grab my arm and let everyone know, then we can head out."

* * *

Coco's already left for Vale, and Taiyang for work, so Velvet, Fox and Yatsuhashi are the only ones left for Yang to talk to.

"That's terrific!" Velvet says, beaming at them. She ducks under a punch from Fox and lunges forward to catch him in the ribs with a headbutt. Fox goes skidding away a few paces, then grabs her by the waist and back-drops her into the dirt. She just laughs and dusts herself off before returning her attention to Yang and Blake. "I hope it goes well for both of you!"

"Thanks Velvet." Blake says.

"Yeah, thanks." Yang says. She gives Zwei one more tummy rub before she stands up. "Could you let Coco know I'd be happy to pay her back for the outfit?"

"You know she won't let you do that." Velvet says with a smile.

"I know. Worth a shot right?" Yang's nerves only get worse the closer she gets to actually saying goodbye to them. She's never been good at it. "Okay, see you later!"

"Bye! Best 'a' luck!"

All three of them stop training and wave as Blake and Yang head down the path towards the main road. Even Zwei stands next to them, wagging his tail as if he too is waving goodbye.

Yang looks back and waves. Blake raises a hand awkwardly.

"Bye!" Yang calls. She keeps waving and looking back until they're out of sight. She sighs. "I hate goodbyes."

Blake doesn't know what to say to that.

She doesn't say anything on the rest of the walk either. Neither does Yang.

* * *

Yang knocks on the door to the headmistress's office. "Just a minute!" Cerise calls from inside. "Jasmine! Off the desk!" she hisses.

Someone scoffs from inside. Only Blake hears it.

While they wait, Yang finally says something. "Whatever happens in there...just trust me, okay?"

"Okay." Blake says, frowning slightly.

At last Cerise sighs. "Come in." she says.

Yang opens the door. Cerise is at her desk, a paper-thin smile on her face. In the chair directly in front of her is a slender girl with hair that must have been dyed. Blake has never seen blue and yellow-green occur naturally in such proportions.

"Yang. Welcome back. And you too, Miss Belladonna."

"Thanks Mistress." Yang says. Her eyes are fixed on the girl in the chair, who's unobtrusively checking her wrist. "Nice watch." Yang says. "Too bad you won't be able to tell the time on it after I break it. Break your face, that is."

Blake looks over at her, startled. "Yang!"

Yang is smiling.

The girl lowers her arm. "Breaking faces, huh?" She stands up. "You won't be smiling so pretty once I return the favor."

Yang stands her ground as the girl walks over to her. She's slightly taller than Yang, and is definitely not smiling.

Suddenly she hauls back.

Yang does the same.

Before Blake has a chance to ready herself, Yang and the girl have clasped hands tightly, arms raised. " _Darn_ girl!" the newcomer says, though she doesn't say darn. "You been working out?"

"Something like that." Yang says, her smile having widened into a full-on grin. She rolls up her sleeve with her left hand, careful not to break the shake.

The newcomer's eyes widen as well. "Holy shoot." she says, though she doesn't say shoot. "What happened?"

"It's a long story." Yang lets go, and turns halfway to Blake. "Blake, this is Jasmine. You might remember her from the clearing a little bit ago."

"Oh. Yeah. I thought you sounded familiar." Blake feels as though she should offer a hand, but can't quite bring herself to do it.

Jasmine gives half a wave in greeting. Blake settles for the same.

"So where've you been?" Yang asks. "Feels like it's forever since I saw you. Well, before you came to the clearing anyway."

"Tell me about it." Jasmine says with a roll of her eyes. "They've got me running evac out of Beacon still. A lot of the Vytal teams stuck around, but..." She looks quickly at Cerise before she adds, "They're getting tired."

"Jasmine!" Cerise says again.

"Come on! It's not like they weren't gonna find out anyway!" Jasmine snaps. "Gimme a break..."

Cerise sighs. "Please keep that to yourselves." she says to Blake and Yang. "Glynda's worried about morale."

"She should be." Jasmine says. She shivers.

Silence falls upon the room.

At last Yang breaks it. "So, uh, Mistress Cerise..."

Cerise sits up a little straighter in her chair.

"You told us yesterday you knew some...psychologists?" Yang rubs her right bicep with her hand.

"I do." Cerise says, managing a smile. She reaches for some papers on her desk. "Doctor Cohen should be free. I can have my assistant call if you'd like to speak with him."

"Do you have any backups in case we don't-" Yang makes a series of motions with her hands. "-hit it off?"

"I do, as it happens. There's a Doctor Kira, a Doctor Aceto, Doctor-"

"Let's start with Doctor Cohen and see how it goes." Yang says. _Too many choices..._

"All right." Cerise pushes her chair back and stands up. "If you'd like to come with me?"

Yang almost does, until she remembers. "Oh. Blake's going to be seeing him too, if that's okay."

Cerise frowns slightly. "Let's hope he has room to fit both of you in." She looks at Blake. "Do you want to speak to him as well?"

Blake shakes her head a little. "I'll take Yang's recommendations." she says. "One way or the other."

"All right. You and Jasmine are welcome to wait here. Try and play nice, Jasmine." Cerise says as she and Yang are leaving.

"Yeah yeah." Jasmine waves a hand dismissively. After the door closes, she sighs. "She doesn't get me. Barely even tries. Moms, am I right?"

"She's your mother?" Blake says simply.

"Yeah. Only one of my parents I actually know." Jasmine's angular face hardens even more. "But that's enough about me. What's your story?"

"I'm Yang's-" Blake catches herself. "-friend. Just...just a friend. We were on a team back at Beacon."

"Oh." Jasmine says. "Wasn't Yang's sister on her team too?"

"Yeah." Blake says. "Was." She tries to change the subject. "You said you run evac?"

"I don't run as much as fly." Jasmine sits back down. She puts her feet up on the headmistress's desk. "Past couple months I've been all over the world trying to get people back where they came from. Or where they just wanna go, provided it's one of the academies."

"Huh." Blake says. She wants to keep the conversation going to avoid thinking about talking about her problems, and where she would even _start_ , but before she can try, the door opens. Blake turns her head.

Cerise is standing in the doorway, frowning.

"I don't imagine she waited very long before putting her feet back up." she says to Blake.

Blake looks away from Cerise and back to Jasmine. Jasmine doesn't even look in her mother's direction. "Uh..." Blake says.

Cerise waits. When it becomes clear that Blake won't be saying anything else, she sighs. "It doesn't matter. I think she only does it to annoy me."

"I do it because it's comfortable." Jasmine replies. "The world doesn't revolve around you."

Cerise rubs her temples. "Don't you have someplace else to be?"

"Nah." Jasmine leans back so only two of the chair's four legs are on the floor. "I'm on break, remember?"

"I'm sure you can find _something_." Cerise says. She makes her way back to her desk. She sits down and looks hard at her daughter. "I'd like to speak to Miss Belladonna _alone_ , please."

"Fine." Jasmine stands up so fast the chair topples over. "See what I mean?" she says to Blake before storming out of the room.

Cerise buries her head in her hands. Blake waits uncomfortably for a long long moment.

"Yes?" she asks.

Cerise drags her hands down her face before she looks up. "I'm-" she says. "I'm sorry you had to see that. She's been like that for a while." She shuffles some papers and clears her throat. "Ahem." she says. "Anyway. In the wake of the...broadcast yesterday, some of the students here have been harassed, even more than usual. We try to crack down hard, but..." She sighs.

"You mean Faunus students, right?"

Cerise nods. "I wanted you to know that if you experience anything like that, from _anyone_ -"

"I can handle it myself." Blake says.

"But you don't have to. Members of the security force here on campus-"

"If someone with authority calls the humans out on their behavior, the humans are more likely to rebel against authority figures in the future. At least if a Faunus does it, they'll know not all of us are just going to roll over and take it."

Cerise deflates somewhat. "You sound as if you're speaking through experience." Blake nods. "I'll leave it up to you. Just please try not to make too much of a scene."

Blake remembers talking to Ozpin about some of her history with the White Fang, how quickly she'd snapped at him. She's known Cerise for less than a whole day, but she seems nicer than Ozpin. He'd sometimes spoken as if from far away, and even now after what she could only assume to be his death, Blake still isn't sure what to make of him.

"I'll do my best." she says.

Cerise smiles. "I appreciate that." she says. "Miss Xiao Long should be done with her call soon, if you'd like to go and see her."

"I-" Blake says. Cerise's smile fades a little. "I'm not sure. We...we just broke up, and..."

"I see." Cerise leans back in her chair. "It's uncomfortable being around someone you've just ended a relationship with. Do you have anything you'd rather do instead?"

Blake ponders this. "...do you have a library?" she asks.

* * *

Yang stands motionless at the door. She doesn't want to stand still. She wants to run.

She could do it. She could leave, tell everyone she changed her mind. They'd be disappointed, maybe, but wouldn't they try and support her anyway?

She doesn't want to disappoint them though. She never wanted to disappoint anyone. That all went out the window when the whole world saw her breaking Mercury's leg ( _gray hair_ , a not-voice says in her head).

Her right hand clenches tightly. She looks down. Her new hand doesn't move.

She grimaces, and knocks four times on the door.

Soon it opens.

"Ahh." the man inside says. "You must be Miss Xiao Long. Welcome, welcome." He steps to one side, allowing her entrance. "I'm Doctor Cohen. We spoke on the phone."

"I know." Yang says. She can't get her legs to move. "Hi."

"Hello." he says in return. He smiles. His lips are very red. He has a faint mustache on his upper lip, so faint Yang can't tell if it's real or drawn-on. "Come in."

"I-" He looks back at her. "I don't want to bother you."

"You're no bother. I don't have any patients for the rest of the day. Take as long as you like." He takes a step forward. "We can talk outside if you prefer."

She takes a step back. "No. It's fine. I..."

He looks at her. She doesn't like him already. His green eyes are calm but searching. She won't be able to keep secrets from him for long.

"I don't think this is going to work." she says.

"Now why do you think that?" he asks.

"I don't know. You're so... _calm_. And I'm not. I feel like I need someone who understands me."

Doctor Cohen rubs his upper lip for a moment. "Would you like me to tell you something?"

She nods politely, though it's hard. It's so hard.

"I started studying psychology to help me understand my own problems. Once I did I discovered that I liked the feeling of helping people, even if it was just myself. I've had my own practice for...it must be twelve, thirteen years. So you see, I do believe I can understand you, if that's what you want. If you'd prefer to leave, I can try and understand that as well."

Yang blinks. "Um." she says. "I mean... I can _try_."

"Trying is a good place to start." Doctor Cohen says. He steps aside again. "Do you want to come in?"

She looks at him, then looks inside. There's a desk against the far wall and two padded-back chairs facing towards the center of the room.

She inhales, and steps across the threshold.

* * *

Author's Note: And that's where we end this story. The sequel, as well as a couple other RWBY fics I've written, can be found over on AO3. Hope to see you there!


End file.
